Nindo of the Force
by Michael The-Zorch Haney
Summary: A series of events strands Naruto and Jiraiya on a distant alien world. With no obvious way to return home, they work to make a life for themselves, and eventually get caught up in events that will reshape the fortunes of the galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer**_

_All characters under copyright in this derivative work are used according to Fair Use as described in Sections 107-118 of the US Copyright Act of 1971. This derivative work is offered as-is for free, no copyright infringement was intended in the making of this derivative work. All copyrighted characters are the property of their respective companies. This derivative work is under Creative Commons Share-Alike Noncommercial Unported License 3.0._

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 1**

Bale Organa took in the wide expanse of Coruscant from the chancellor's office window. It was his office now. He was still wrapping his mind around fact that he was now Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. After word of Palpatine's death reached Coruscant an emergency election was held. Many say he was the only logical choice given the current circumstances. He was a respected voice of reason and the only one whom the senate believed could help the Republic weather through the truths which were about to come to light.

He had the holo recording in his hand, a small spherical storage device. The information in it would shake the Republic to its foundation, but it could not be kept a secret. The galaxy had to know the truth. Lies and deceit took them to war, now the truth could either create more war or finally bring peace to the galaxy.

Turning, Chancellor Organa placed the orb into a player receptacle, and the holographic image of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared before him.

"Senators and Chancellor of the Republic, I am Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, member of the Jedi High Council and chief investigator of the incident on the independent world of Mandalore." the hologram said.

After a pause, the recording resumed. "This will be my final verbal introductory report on the Mandalorian incident. I will reiterate that my previous involvement in certain events in this report have in no way adversely affected the outcome of this investigation. To recap, prior to the incident in question a terrorist organization called Deathwatch sought to topple the legitimate government of Mandalore. My involvement in thwarting their attempts are currently on record. Sometime afterward, an enemy previously presumed dead during the incident with the Trade Federation on Naboo many years ago resurfaced. My second encounter with the Sith Lord, Darth Maul, is also on record. Maul and his brother, the Dathomiri male Savage Opress appeared on Mandalore accompanied by the members of Deathwatch. The rogue Sith Lord had somehow taken control of the organization. As a result, the legitimate government of Mandalore was toppled, and Duchess Satine was murdered. I was an eyewitness to this murder. I had no personal involvement in any of the events which take place afterward those events."

Obi-Wan's visage was replaced by an image of a young man with blond hair and blue eyes. Three lines, like whiskers, adorned either cheeks on his face. He was dressed in antique armor which hadn't been seen in centuries since the time of Malak and Revan, and the events of the Jedi Civil War. On his back were two words, and on the left breast of the armor a pair of symbols are etched into a metal plate. One symbol appears to be that of a stylized leaf, while the other is clearly twin suns.

The recording continued, "Following the murder of Duchess Satine, her sister Bo-Kata a former member of Deathwatch, sought the aid of this man. His name is Naruto Namikaze, he is an ally of the Republic and a friend to the Jedi order. He is what is called a Ninja, and currently resides in a outpost city he helped establish on Tatooine called Hope. Information about his homeworld and his people's unique way of using the Force was the subject of a separate report."

The holo image changed from Naruto to the scene of the Mandalore throne room. A security hologram recording of Naruto and Palpatine's battle began to play. The Sith Lord's hood had been pushed back revealing him to be the former Chancellor. Obi-Wan's narration continued again, "Naruto made a reputation for himself throughout the war, a number of Jedi including myself encountered and worked with him on a number of occasions when our missions crossed paths. This is why Bo-Kata sought him out to help her free her people from the domination of the Sith. It was either chance, or the will of the Force that Naruto was on Mandalore when the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious whom we now know as former Chancellor Palpatine, arrived to destroy Dark Maul and his brother. The confrontation between Palpatine and Naruto resulted in Palpatine's death. Naruto himself was very severely injured but is said to be making a rapid recovery. The people of Mandalore consider him a hero, and the Republic certainly owes Mr. Namikaze a great debt of gratitude. Newly crowned Dutchess Bo-Kata has several of her most trusted soldiers protecting him while he recovers, in the event there is an attempt on his life."

The hologram switched back to Obi-Wan, "In our previous report to the senate, we presented overwhelming evidence linking Chancellor Palpatine not only to Count Dooku, but to the start of the war itself. Nute Gunray, former viceroy of the Trade Federation, supplied a confession of Darth Sidious' involvement in the invasion of Naboo, and the establishment of the Confederacy of Separatists Planets. Since that report, many more of Palpatine's former conspirators on Kamino and in the Banking Clan have come forward with information. It can no longer be denied that former Chancellor Palpatine was a traitor to the Galactic Republic, and a very dangerous Dark Lord of the Sith. In conclusion, we were fortunate. Had Palpatine's plans continued to fruition the democracy of the Republic would have been supplanted by the tyranny of the Sith. Decrypted records from Palpatine's private files outlined a complex, long range plan to turn public sentiment against the Jedi Order, and eliminate anyone who might pose a threat to him assuming full control of the Republic. The total destruction of the Jedi was his ultimate aim. It should be noted for the record that the surviving clone troopers have volunteer for a surgical procedure which will render their secret directive to destroy all Jedi inoperative. The motivation for his actions stretch back to antiquity, back to the days when the Old Republic defeated the Sith Empire. He was guided purely by a desire for revenge, against the Republic, and against the Jedi Order. It is the recommendation of the Jedi High Council that Naruto Namikaze receive the highest honor the Republic and present to a civilian for his involvement in this incident. This concludes the Jedi Order's report."

Organa pocketed the recording orb as the door to his office open. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi strode in looking somber and contemplative. "You wished to see me, Chancellor Organa?" he tried his best to hide his mood, but it still came through in his voice. Obi-Wan didn't trust most politicians. He came to trust the Senator of Naboo, she wasn't like the others, and neither was former Senator of Alderaan. He was very pleased when Bale Organa was named the new Supreme Chancellor.

"Obi-Wan, thank you for coming." Chancellor Organ gestured to a ring of cushioned seats before his desk indicating to the Jedi that this was to be an informal meeting. "Is something that matter?"

Obi-Wan stopped for a moment, then sighed. "Its an internal matter to the Jedi," he said. "But, it involves Anakin."

"Something has happened to Skywalker?" Bale's concern showed on his face, he knew Anakin through Senator Amidala, and was saved at least once by him during the hostage crisis in the senate building.

"Its going to get out eventually," Obi-Wan told him. "Anakin violated one of the strictest of the Jedi codes, the one forbidding attachments. We come to learn that he and Senator Amidala have been married for several years, and that she is currently pregnant. In addition, the revelations about Palpatine hit him rather hard. He was very close to the chancellor for a number of years. He feels betrayed, as we all do, but its more than that. I fear that Palpatine had been slowly trying to seduce Anakin to the dark side, which would explain his past behavior."

"Where is he now?" asked Organa.

"In seclusion and deep meditation at our academy on Dantooine," sighed Obi-Wan. "As for the matter of his marriage, that is still being debated. If this had been discovered before the events on Mandalore our response would be clear cut. Expulsion from the Jedi Order. However, the revelations about Palpatine, as well as Naruto's ability to draw strength from his attachments without succoming to the corruption of the dark side, has forced us to reevaluate everything about the Jedi Order. This includes the code."

"Sounds rather profound," Organa interjected.

Obi-Wan nodded, "Extremely, when something happens that makes Master Yoda reexamine our most sacred traditions and laws, it is indeed very profound."

"Master Yoda is very wise," said the chancellor. "He more than anyone is best equipped to help the Jedi through this period." He gestured for the Jedi Master to take a seat.

"He is indeed," said Obi-Wan. "He is surprisingly very open to the idea of altering the code and our training methods. I'm certain he will personally tell you everything when he feels it time. What was it you wanted to see me about?"

"I just rewatched the holo recording for your final report into the Mandalore incident," he said as they sat down.

"The recording is just an introduction to the official written report, which will be substantially more details." explained Obi-Wan. "However, I sense you called me here for another purpose."

"Its about Naruto," said Chancellor Organa. "He isn't a Jedi, yet he defeated a Sith Lord. One so powerful that he was able to cloud the perceptions of the entire Jedi High Council for more than ten years. I've only briefly met him myself, so I know almost nothing about him."

Obi-Wan nodded, "The final written report will have more information, but I can tell you what I personally know about him and his master."

"Please do," the chancellor bade him.

"Naruto was born on a world deep within the great unknown," Obi-Wan began. "His people evolved a method of using the Force that is radically different from both the Jedi and the Sith. To them the Force is called Chakra, and they use it to perform seemingly miraculous feats. This is similar to the Witches of Dathomir, but where they use the dark side Naruto people channel both aspects at once. The molding of energies from both the light and dark side are channeled to perform what they call Jutsu. I've seen Naruto use the one he called Kage Bushin, a jutsu that creates a number of solid copies of himself which can independently think and act on their own. He is also able to use a jutsu called Henge, which is a shape shifting ability. He can assume the form and likeness of living beings and static objects for a limited time. He is unable to perform a type of jutsu called Genjutsu, which creates illusions that can even fool Jedi senses, but does not affect droids or recording devices."

Chancellor Organa look at him in shock, "I didn't know the Force was capable of doing anything like that."

"There is precedent," Obi-Wan replied. "The Witches of Dathomir are said to be capable of performing miracles using their dark side fueled magics. These jutsu are simply a variation on that same concept. According to Master Yoda, there are aspects to the Force which we are only just now beginning to understand, and that's saying a lot coming from him."

"Naruto wasn't using a lightsaber," the chancellor said, recalling the security hologram recording. "It looked like he was using a pair of standard swords."

"There is a story behind that, chancellor." Obi-Wan explained. "Four years before the incident on Naboo with the Trade Federation, Naruto and his master Jiraiya stumbled across an ancient yet well preserved Dynamic-class freighter in a desert cave on their homeworld. It was similar to the Ebon Hawk, the ship used by Revan which is well known in ancient historical records. This ship was from the same era. In fact, it belonged to a Jedi Knight named Gaiden Senju who went missing just before the Battle of the Star Forge."

"How did Gaiden Senju end up all the way out there?" Bale asked.

"There is no information on why or how," said Obi-Wan. "On Naruto's world he is a famous historical figure, and the founder of the Senju ninja clan. Interestingly enough, Naruto is from his genetic bloodline."

"So, Naruto and his master used the ship to reach Republic space then." the chancellor reasoned.

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Not exactly, their departure from their homeworld was an accident. While exploring the ship one of them somehow reactivated its main power. A failsafe mechanism on the ship directed the autopilot to fly back to Coruscant. Before they even knew what was happening they were already in space and jumping to lightspeed. I should note that they were from a pre-first contact planet."

"That must have been a shock to them," Bale gaped in surprise.

"It would have been a disaster had the activation of the ship not also activated Senju's protocol and astromech droids." said Obi-Wan. "The protocol droid was able to communicate to them what was happening, however there were problems. The ship was low on fuel, and so couldn't complete the journey to Coruscant. The astromech droid had to disengage the failsafe and land the ship on the nearest habitable planet. Which just so happened to be Anakin's homeworld of Tatooine, that is how I came to meet Naruto originally. They lived in a village near Mos Espa, which Naruto and Jiraiya established with the aid of slaves they helped free. This included Anakin and his mother."

"Where they ever able to go back to their homeworld?" Chancellor Organa asked.

Only recently," said Obi-Wan. "An unfortunate side effect of disengaging the failsafe was the loss of the return coordinates to Naruto's homeworld. Master Yoda aided them in locating their planet through the Force. Jedi Knight Shaak Ti was sent as the order's ambassador when they went home. His village leader, a woman named Tsunade, sent a few of their ninja back to Tatooine with him and Jiraiya."

"And what about the swords?" Organa asked, getting the conversation back on track.

"Naruto found vibroswords and armor laced with a cortosis weave on the ship," explained Obi-Wan. "Its a very rare ore, the main source these days is the Bespin system. Cortosis nanothreads woven into solid materials can render them resistant to lightsaber damage. During the war with Darth Malak and his followers and later the Sith Empire, the swords and armor were often issued to Republic soldiers, and the armor was sometimes used by Jedi. Cortosis in its unrefined form can temporarily short out lightsaber blades."

"Interesting," Chancellor Organa rubbed his chin in thought. "So, Naruto and his master established a ninja village on Tatooine with the help of freed slaves. Do you happen to know the story behind that?"

Obi-Wan nodded, "Yes, while Anakin was my padawan learner he told me the story of how Naruto and Jiraiya earned the money needed to free the slaves of Anchorhead. Its quite the tale, and a long one assuming you have the time to hear it."

"Master Jedi, I haven't had a break since my impromptu election." Bale Organa laughed. "I certainly could use a breather. I'm going to need it, I'll have to hit the ground running once the final report hits the senate."

"Well then," the Jedi smiled and shifted on his seat to make himself more comfortable. "It all started the day Naruto and Jiraiya arrived on Tatooine. Their astromech droid was able to land the ship in the outskirts of Anchorhead. Theirs was a classic fish out of water kind of story, but either by pure luck or the will of the Force they encountered a human slave named Shmi Skywalker..."

**From the Author**

Oh shit, I'm combining two franchises which have vicious, ravenous fanboi communities. What could possibly go wrong?

Major inspiration for this story comes from KOTOR and the CG Clone Wars series. The story itself, in the beginning, will not cover the Clone Wars but the establishment of the ninja village on Tatooine. Rather than having Chakra as a separate form of energy, or having Naruto come from a different universe I decided to merge the two. Chakra, in canon, is derived from two separate sources of energy in the body. Its entirely possible that Naruto's people could have developed a perception and understanding of the Force which is vastly different than that of the Jedi and Sith. There is precedent for this in the Witches of Dathomir, who use the dark side of the Force to weave magic spells which go beyond what the Sith and Jedi are capable of doing. Thus, jutsu powered by the Force can equally do the same miraculous things. I mean, in The Clone Wars the witches were able to animate the dead, and then there's that forbidden technique uses by Orochimaru and later Kobato which resurrected the dead. So its not too far fetched that ninjitsu can be powered by the Force.

I'm also not going to fret over whether something is Canon or Legends. Don't lose sleep over it, though I know there are some who will (you know who you are). Every fan community has them, Star Wars and Naruto especially so (Star Trek has them too). I can't please everybody, and attempting to do so will only bring discouragement and frustration. I don't need that, I don't want that, so I will not do anything which causes it. Therefore, I'm writing what seems right to me and my own musings and research. If someone else likes it then I've done my job. If someone doesn't, oh well you aren't being forced to read this (although I know the mere fact it exists is going to emotionally torment some of you for weeks).

Anywho, this is the first of what will be many more chapters. I'm also using a new story format. The disclaimer will appear only in the first chapter, and any notes like this will appear at the end. This is to preserve the aesthetic look of the story, as if it came from a book. I plan to keep releasing regular updates at least once or twice a month. Please look forward to it.

Namaste.


	2. Chapter 2

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 2**

Jiraiya was the first to awaken. He tried sitting up, and immediately regretted the action. He felt like he usually did after an all night bender. Except, this time he hadn't been drinking. Slowly he reached up and felt the sizable bump on the top of his head. All he could remember seeking shelter from the sandstorm outside. They were in the Wind Country, about one hundred miles from Sunagakure, when the wind suddenly started to pick up. The sandstorms of Wind Country were notoriously dangerous. The grinding sand could easily scour away flesh from the bone, and all that friction caused dangerous lightning. Many a shinobi lost their lives in that desert. They were fortunate to have come across a cave when they did, or else they would have had to get creative in finding shelter.

It was in that cave that they found the metal building, or so they thought it was building. Naruto, being the curious child that he was, decided to go exploring. Jiraiya came long to make sure the young shinobi didn't get into any trouble. He'd never seen anything like thing metal thing before in his entire life. Something told him it wasn't a building, but something very different. When the lights suddenly came on and the floor lurched out from under him he knew immediately that they were in trouble. The last things he could remember was the sound of strange roar, the feeling of moving very fast, then a sudden feeling of incredible acceleration. That's when he lost his footing again and smacked his head against the wall.

Somewhere in another room Jiraiya could hear voices. One of them was definitely Naruto, but the other was one he couldn't place. This voice was very submission, like a matrade from a high-class Hotel, or the servant of a rich nobleman. Either way, it meant that someone was in this thing with them, and he had to know who that person was. They could simply be someone also taking shelter from the storm, or they could be an agent of Akatsuki. He shakily climbed to his feet and made his way towards the sound using the walls to support himself.

When he found Naruto he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. The young blonde Jinchuuriki was talking to an impossibly thin looking man made of metal. Or, at least something which looked like metal and had the vague shape of a man. There was no way this was a living person in a suit of armor, the legs, waist, and arms were far too thin. The metal man's head was large, a circular pattern adorned the front of his face just above a pair of protruding eyes that were flowing. Jiraiya couldn't identify anything that even remotely looked like a mouth. Where it should have been was just a grill.

"Ero-sensei, you finally woke up." Naruto smiled as he noticed him.

"What's going on here Naruto, what is that?" the toad sage pointed at the metal man. In doing so he nearly lost balance, but Naruto was instantly by his side. The young blonde shinobi guided him over to a nearby seat.

"He appears injured, perhaps we should take him to the medical bay." said the metal man.

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, he's ok. I've seen him in worse shape after one of his bar fight." He'd been on the road with Jiraiya for about five months, and in that time the perverted sage had gotten into six bar fights.

"What happened, was it an earthquake?" Jiraiya asked, still trying to figure out exactly what caused him to lose his footing and hit his head like he did. "I didn't think there were earthquakes in Wind Country."

"Ero-sensei, you've been out for six hours," Naruto explained. "Uh, I don't know how to explain this, but we aren't in Wind Country anymore."

Jiraiya just looked at him strangely, "What do you mean we aren't in Wind Country? Buildings don't just get up and walk away with people inside."

The blonde jinchuuriki looked over at the metal man with an expression that screamed "I don't know how to explain this". The metal man turned to focus his glowing eyes on Jiraiya and said, "You are not in a building, sir. This construct is a Dynamic-class freighter named the Jade Falcon."

"A freighter, but we're in the middle of a desert." Jiraiya retorted.

Naruto sighed and said, "Show him what you showed me Jaytwo." The metal man acknowledged with a nod and moved to the center of the room. There he touched something on a raised dais and the lights in the room dimmed slightly. Then, to Jiraiya's surprise, lights began to fill the room again but they looked as if they were floating in the air all around him and Naruto.

The floating image was a vast swirling pattern of glowing dots. The dots formed arms like water in a whirlpool, and as the dots got closer in the center the glow intensified. The image changed, zooming into a set of glowing dots. Now in the center of the room was a large glowing sphere, and around it moved several other spheres. On the periphery were a multitude of glowing dots forming a larger sphere which encompassed all. It didn't take Jiraiya long to realize what it was he was looking at. One of the small spheres in the view was blue and green, and the lights on the periphery formed patterns he was intimately familiar with. They were stars and constellations, he knew them all by heart because they were the only thing he could use for navigation in the deserts of Wind Country. The desert has no landmarks, you used the stars to find your way or you could get lost for months.

"Those are the stars and constellations you can see in the night sky." he commented, but still wasn't sure how this explained what was going on. "Is this thing an airship? I've seen them before, in the distant lands to the west." He remembered the first time he saw one of the great zeppelins. Huge flying machines carried aloft by massive balloons filled with gas that was lighter than air.

"The Jade Falcon is a spacecraft," the metal man said.

"What exactly is a spacecraft?" Jiraiya asked, though the stirrings of realization were starting to take root in his head. As the solar system view changed again, Jiraiya began to have a strong sinking feeling in his stomach.

"A spacecraft is a flying vehicle which can escape the gravitational pull of a planet, and traverse the vast distances between stars utilizing a device called a hyperdrive." the metal man explained. The floating image zoomed out from the current view, then drew a line from the star which was their sun, and interconnected that line with several other dots which themselves Jiraiya surmised were also other suns.

"I saw out a window when we flew away," Naruto explained excitedly. "We were moving really fast, I could see the ground drop down lower and lower, and then the horizon started to curve like a ball. Then, I could see our planet from way up. Its a big round ball, I could see the lands of the Elemental Countries, the rivers, the lakes, the oceans, and clouds. And then, I could see stars in the sky start to streak by like we were going really fast. It was incredible, a little scary at first, but incredible."

Jiraiya raised a hand for him to stop. "Hold on! If we're flying, then who's controlling this thing, and why did we take off in the first place?"

"The Jade Falcon is currently operating on a autopilot," the metal man replied. "When the main power was restored, an emergency system was activated that directed the autopilot to fly the ship back to its port of origin. That would be the planet Coruscant at the heart of the Galactic Republic."

"The what where?" Jiraiya asked, the floating image changed again slowing the line ending at another sun. The distance was, to Jiraiya's own guessing, very very far.

"What's on this Core croissant planet thingy?" the toad sage was now fully beginning to understand the sheer scale of their predicament. He knew he didn't understand the workings of this "spacecraft", so the best thing to do was gather information so he could be prepared for what was coming.

"Coruscant, sir." the metal man corrected him. "It is the seat of power for the senate of the Galactic Republic, and home to the temple of the Jedi Order."

Jiraiya knew what a senate was, that was a parliamentary body. The lands of the west ran their governments with those systems, whereas the Elemental Countries were ruled by their respective Daimyo. "What is the Jedi Order?" he asked.

"The Jade Falcon was a vessel belonging to the Jedi Knight Gaiden Senju," the metal man explained to him. "The Jedi are the keepers of the peace for the Galactic Republic."

"Gaiden Senju," the toad sage said the name aloud several more times. He knew he heard that name somewhere before, then finally he remembered.

He said, "I've heard of a Gaiden Senju, he united the warring tribes against the Eastern Empire, and helped establish the nations known today as the Elemental Countries. He's also the original founder of the Senju clan who centuries later would join with the Uchiha in establishing the hidden village of Konoha."

"That can't be the same guy, can it?" Naruto gaped.

"According to legend Senju had a sword that glowed like fire, could cut through anything, and he could sweep away whole armies with the wave of his hand." Jiraiya said, remembering the old stories and legends he heard about the man.

"The glowing sword would be Gaiden Senju's lightsaber," the metal man touched the dais again, and the image of the weapon appear in the middle of the room. "All Jedi carry lightsabers. As for sweeping armies away with his hand, he was a Jedi Knight and very strong in the Force."

"What's the Force?" Naruto asked.

"That would require lengthy explanation," the metal man explained. "In short, it is what gives a Jedi their powers. Perhaps when we arrive on Coruscant the Jedi at the temple can elaborate further."

"Ok, so lets get this all straight," said Jiraiya. "We're inside some kind of machine that can fly from one planet to another. The planet we're going to is the heart of something called the Galactic Republic which I'm guessing is some sort of government. Their protectors are these Jedi who have powers that comes from something called the Force, and they carry fancy glowing swords that can supposedly cut through anything. And, the founder of the Senju clan wasn't even from our planet."

"In a roundabout way you are correct, sir." the metal man agreed.

Jiraiya put his head in his hands, "I couldn't make this shit up even if I wanted to."

"So there are people living out there, on other planets?" Naruto asked.

"Correct," replied Jaytwo. "The galaxy is teeming with life in vast amounts of variations. The Republic represents hundreds of worlds. Humans and hundreds of other races all co-exist together with one another in peaceful co-operation."

Jiraiya turned to him and asked, "So then what the hell are you anyway? You aren't a man, or at least not any kind of man I've ever seen." Though he'd heard old wives tales about thin, gray skinned men from the sky who came down and kidnapped people.

"I am J2-DB-GE3, human-cyborg relations." Jaytwo replied. "I am a droid, originally manufactured by the Czerka Corporation."

"He's a machine, ero-sensei." the hyperactive ninja jumped around the room as he spoke. "A machine that can walk, talk, and think like we do. Isn't that amazing?"

"So what do I call you?" Jiraiya asked the droid.

"You may called me Jaytwo for short if you wish." Jaytwo replied. "That is the name that Naruto has chosen to use for me. My previous master, Jedi Knight Gaiden Senju also called me by that name."

"Are there any others like you on this spaceship?" Jiraiya asked, wondering if he might have to contend with more of these walking, talking machines. He was already beginning to feel as if he might be dreaming, but the pain from the bump on his head said otherwise.

"The only other droid on the Jade Falcon is T3-M80," Jaytwo replied. "He is a utility service droid, his main role is for maintenance of the Jade Falcon, and as a co-pilot when our master required it."

Jiraiya perked up at that, "Get him out here so we can turn this thing around and go back home." Jaytwo nodded and left the room. A moment later he returned returned with something following him. Jiraiya guessed it was a droid, but it wasn't like Jaytwo at all. It glided on four legs, had a squat body, and its head was wide and flat. An antenna came up out of its head. Overall, the thing looked like a squatting dog, if a dog had a wide, flat head.

The droid made a sound, a series of incomprehensible bleeps and bloops. Jiraiya could have sworn the thing was looking right at him. The droid didn't have eyes like Jaytwo, but a single, large lense on the front of his head.

"What's his name?" Naruto asked.

"T3-M80 is his designation," replied Jaytwo.

"T3-M80, hmmm," Jiraiya could almost hear the gears turning in the young blonde's head. "M80, M80, hmmm. Matey, we'll call you Matey!"

The droid made a warbling sound that almost seemed like approval. "Ok, can he understand what I'm saying?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes he can, sir." Jaytwo said.

"Alright, Matey is it, I want you to take us back to where we came from." the utility droid warbled and spun his head around.

"Matey says that to alter our course he would have to disengage the emergency system." explained Jaytwo.

"Then do that." Jiraiya said. Matey's warbled reply seemed very insistent.

"To disengage that system would require a reset of the navigational computer," Jaytwo explained. "The coordinates for your homeworld would be erased. We would not be able to calculate a return course without them."

"We wouldn't be able to go back!" Naruto exclaimed in a panic. "That would be bad! We wouldn't see Tsunade-obachan, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, or any of the others ever again!"

"Shit," Jiraiya deflated. "Well, I guess we're going all the way to this Coruscant then."

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked. Matey warbled an answer.

"Approximately five days on our present course," Jaytwo translated. Jiraiya knew it could have been worse. They'd brought enough provisions for the trek across the desert, and that would have taken them at least a week and a half at a walking pace. So, they were ok on food and water. All they'd have to do is wait for the ship to reach its destination, then after meeting whoever was on Coruscant they could go back home. He wondered if he should be taking notes. Maybe do a sci-fi version of his books.

"So what do we do until then?" Naruto asked him.

Jiraiya shrugged, "I don't know about you, gaki, but I'm going to go lay down somewhere. Wake me when we get there." With that Jiraiya turned and left, he wandered the narrow corridors of the ship for a short time before finally finding what looked like a bunk. The minute his head hit the pillow he was out.

**From the Author**

I decided to skip the part where Naruto and Jiraiya discover the ship, and go straight to just after the ship took off. Both to get the story going faster, and I wanted to work on Jiraiya's reaction to what was going on right. For the designations of the two droids I research the Wookiepedia, and specifically looked up droids from KOTOR. The GE3 and T3 series droids are both from the Jedi Civil War era, which is the setting for KOTOR. T3-M80 is the same kind of droid that T3-M4 is. If you've ever played KOTOR then you'll recognize that droid designation.

You might have noticed these chapters are a bit shorter than my previous works. This is a part of the new format I'm trying out. Shorter, more focused chapters just like those in books. Before my chapters were more like short stories. I hope you like the change.

This part of the story was the most difficult to figure out. How would Jiraiya respond to what was happened? How would Naruto? I think I've got it right, but a part of me says it could be better. I rewrote this chapter at least three times before settling with this version. Jiraiya is more traveled than Naruto, he's seen more in his lifetime, so strange things happening around him would be less likely to make him freak out. Wait until he meets up with a Krayt Dragon.

Next chapter, things go south really fast, and our intrepid heroes end up having to make an agonizing choice. Look forward to it.

Namaste.


	3. Chapter 3

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 3**

Naruto watched Jiraiya go in search of a place to lay down. His own curiosity was starting to get the better of him, so he decided to go exploring. He saw Jiraiya find some kind of bunk, and immediately started snoring away. After about an hour of poking around and not know what anything was he went to find Jaytwo and get his help. The protocol droid tried its best to explain what Naruto was looking at.

They found the food packs, though after several centuries they weren't quite edible anymore. There was a water purification system that was still working. The containers in the cargo hold of the ship were all empty, and Naruto avoided place that Jaytwo said were vital to the operation of the ship. Places like the engine compartment, the computer core crawlspace, and the life support system compartment.

Soon, they came upon what Jaytwo said had been Gaiden Senju's private quarters in the Jade Falcon. After being shown how to open the door, Naruto took a look inside. The room wasn't that big, there was bunk in one wall, and there were few decorations. Naruto's attention went to the storage lockers that lined one wall. Figuring out the latch mechanisms, he opened them one by one and sorted through the items inside.

"These are vibroswords I do believe," explained Jaytwo as Naruto withdrew them from the locker. "They have what are called a cortosis weave, it makes them resistant to lightsaber damage."

"Why are they called vibroswords?" Naruto asked as he checked the weapon's weight. It was surprisingly well balanced, and not really that heavy.

"I do not know the full technical details behind how they work," said Jaytwo. "Vibroswords can cut through most materials easily, not as easily as a lightsaber mind you, but they are quite potent as a weapon. Jedi often give these to younglings who are learning to become Jedi themselves, but have not yet taken the test to acquire their lightsaber crystals."

Naruto set them aside, wondering if he could incorporate them into his training somehow, then reached in to pull out the next item. This was a full body suit of a material that Naruto hadn't felt before. It looked rigid at first, but it was flexible. It didn't feel like cloth, yet it moved like cloth. He liked the color scheme, it was mostly black with dark orange colored panels. "What is this?" he asked.

"It is body armor if I recall correctly," said the droid. "I do not recall master Gaiden ever wearing it, though its possible his padawan may have. You appear to be the right size to wear it, and it will adjust to conform to your body shape. This also has a cortosis weave to protect against lightsaber damage." Naruto looked at his own clothes, which were getting old and starting to look very threadbare in places. He liked his orange and black outfit, but he was beginning to grow out of it. Finding a replacement wasn't going to be easy either, so he quickly made up his mind.

"I'll wear this," he said, and started pulling off his outer clothes. After figuring out how the seals and closures worked he was able to slip the armored body suit on. It fit him rather well, and actually adjusted itself to conform to his body shape just like Jaytwo told him. The material felt very strong, but it was light. The boots were comfortable also. There was only one thing, he wasn't sure if his chakra would flow through this material.

Naruto went to the wall, placed his foot against it and focused his chakra there just like he'd been taught by Kakashi. Effortlessly he was able to walk up the wall like he usually could. "Cool, my chakra can flow right through this stuff." he cheered and jumped down.

A moment later he found the scabbards and straps for the swords, and slung them over his back. A few minutes later he made a Kage Bunshin and checked himself over. "Damn, I look badass!"

"Lets show ero-sensei," the kage bunshin suggested enthusiastically. The two ran to where he was sleeping and shook him awake. The toad sage blinked a few times, then focused on the two blonde shinobi who were all grins.

"Its still orange," he groused, and rolled over.

"What's wrong with orange?" the two ninja frowned. They looked each other up and down and gave themselves a thumbs up.

"Oh, nothing, except you stand out like a signal fire." Jiraiya waved negligently over his shoulder.

The two ninja smirked, "Oh, and your outfit is so befitting that of a true ninja." They put the enthuses on "true". The two jumped back as Jiraiya leaped out of bed, and immediate took a pose they both knew all too well.

"Boy, this is the attire of a true ninja!" Jiraiya exclaimed putting enthuses on "is". "Those who see this attire know to run the other way. For they know a great ninja has come into their midst, and my enemies scatter!" He took a deeper pose, swirling his hair flamboyantly.

"For they know I have come," he continued. "For I am the legendary ninja, the mighty toad sage!" The two had turned around and were leaving the room when their master looked up, expecting to see them in awe of his "greatness".

"Gaki," they heard him grouse under his breath.

"Man, I'm hungry, hope this ship has someplace to heat up water for instant ramen." Naruto wondered out loud.

Luckily the Jade Falcon did have a small galley in the main common room where the holographic projector was located. It folded down from the wall and consisted of a heating plate, a few cooking implement that Naruto could quite identify, and some assorted metal cooking pots. He get his water skin from his backpack, filled one of the smaller pots, and set to boil on the hot plate. To his surprise it only took a few seconds for the water to reach boiling.

The small pot itself was also surprisingly cool to the touch. He poured the steaming liquid in the cup of instant ramen, then waited. This was the part he hated the most about instant ramen, the three minute wait. It often felt like forever, and his stomach was growling.

Matey came trundling through the room warbling away rather insistently, then went quickly down the corridor that lead to the engine compartment. "What's he going on about?" Naruto asked.

"I am not sure," Jaytwo answered. "He was saying something about an alert indicator in the one of the engine sensors. I would not worry, it is his job to maintain the ship after all."

Naruto thought for a moment, then asked the droid, "Do you know how long the ship was in that cave?"

"Main power was deactivated," replied Jaytwo. "The ship chronometers were not functioning, and myself and Matey were in extreme low-power hibernation mode." Naruto knew hibernation was something some animals did in the winter, so he guessed it meant the droids went to sleep. He wondered if droids being machines could sleep, and if they could sleep did they dream.

"We went into hibernation mode with our batteries were fully charged," the droid continued. "When I reactivated my battery had only a three percent charge. If I take the known natural discharge rate for my batteries mode into account, I calculate that I was in hibernation mode for no more than roughly four thousand years."

Naruto's mind boggled, "Four thousand years!?"

"It would indeed explain why the emergency system activated," said Jaytwo. "Master Gaiden wore a wrist device which monitored his life signs. These were broadcast to the ship. The emergency system was designed to prevent the Sith from acquiring Jedi and Republic assets, thus the emergency system activated when those life signs were not received."

"He was a human," the droid added. "It is unlikely that he would be alive today." Naruto nodded, he didn't know of anybody who could live that long. Except for maybe Orochimaru, who cheated death by hijacking other people's bodies. That thought made him think of Sasuke.

"What is a Sith?" asked Naruto.

"The enemies of the Jedi and the Galactic Republic," said Jaytwo. "They are practitioners of the dark side of the Force. They are very evil and dangerous."

In sudden alarm, Naruto asked, "We gonna run into any of them?"

Jaytwo tilted his metallic head in thought for a moment, "I am not certain. It has been a long time. The war has most certainly ended by now. However, one cannot tell with the Sith. They are mysterious in their ways. All I know of them is they are dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. Only a trained Jedi or trained Republic soldier should engage them in combat."

"You said the Jedi use the Force, but so do the Sith." Naruto commented, with some confusion.

"I have limited knowledge on this subject," said the droid. "The Force, as I understand it, is separated into light and dark sides. The Jedi use the light side of the Force, and the Sith use the dark side of the Force. The light side represents good, and the dark side represents evil."

Naruto let that roll around in his mind a little bit. Something about that description seemed off to him. Things weren't really that black & white, at least not to his own brief experience of the real world. Everything was a shade of gray. There was no such things as absolute evil, though Orochimaru was close. Not even Sasuke was purely evil. The thought of his misguided friend again made him feel a bit depressed.

Matey came back, his head spinning and warbled incessantly. "Oh my," Jaytwo put a metallic hand up to the grill that served as his mouth.

"What?" asked Naruto looked from one droid to the other confused.

"Matey says the fuel system has been leaking since we launched," Jaytwo explained. "The advanced age of the fuel lines made them brittle. He was able to patch the leak, but we have lost more than half of our fuel reserves."

"What does that mean?" Naruto pondered worriedly.

"It means we do not have the necessary fuel to make it all the way to Coruscant." the droid explained. Naruto jumped up, forgetting his lunch, and shook Jiraiya awake. He returned with the toad sage in tow who yawned loudly.

"What's the problem?" Jiraiya yawn again.

"The ship is almost out of fuel, ero-sensei!" Naruto explained excitedly. "Matey said there was a leak, but he fixed it. But, we lost a lot of fuel already!"

"What are you trying to say?" the toad sage narrowed his eyes.

"He is saying that the Jade Falcon has insufficient fuel to complete the journey to Coruscant." Jaytwo explained.

"Nani!?" Jiraiya jumped to his feet.

"What are we gonna do ero-sensei?" Naruto panicked. He was hoping that his sensei had some answer. Maybe they could use something else as fuel. He kept a lot of things stored up in scrolls. Maybe they could use his secret stash of sake which wasn't entirely a secret since he knew about it.

"Are you absolutely sure we don't have enough to make it?" Jiraiya asked the droid.

Matey warbled a response. "We will not even make it half way, unfortunately." Jaytwo translated.

"Could we use something else as fuel," the toad sage pulled a flask out of his jacket and held to towards the utility droid. Naruto crossed his fingers as Matey extended a thin metal appendage and dipped it into the flask. A few seconds later he warbled loudly and his head rolled side to side.

"He says it isn't chemically compatible with our engines," said Jaytwo. "That cannot be used as fuel." Naruto's hopes deflated.

"Then, what do we do?" he asked.

"The only option is to disengage the hyperdrive and land on the nearest inhabited planet for assistance." Jaytwo replied apologetically.

"Hold on!" Jiraiya shouted angrily. "You said if we stopped we wouldn't be able to get back home because your navigational thingy would lose the coordinates for our planet."

Jaytwo tilted his head down apologetically and said, "Many apologies sir, but you are correct. If we continue on our course we would eventually run out of fuel. The ship would drop out of hyperspace, and the Jade Falcon would be set adrift. We could attempt to send a message for assistance, however there is a ninety-nine point nine nine percent chance that our main power will fail before anyone locates us."

"So we'd just drift until someone comes to get us," Naruto said, thinking that didn't sound too bad. "So the lights would just go out for a little while, right?" He looked at the droid hoping he'd nod in agreement, but Jaytwo shook his head instead.

"You do not understand, we are in deep space," he explained. "The average temperature in space between star systems is well below negative two-hundred degrees. Also, there is no air to breath in space. If main power fails, the life support system which maintains the breathable atmosphere within the ship will stop functioning. This means the cabin temperature within the ship will begin to drop rapidly, and without the life support system the oxygen levels will drop and carbon dioxide levels will begin to rise to dangerous levels."

"The what?" Naruto scratched his head.

"He means we'll either freeze to death or suffocate, gaki, whichever comes first." said Jiraiya.

"That means, we gotta make a decision." he added and patted the seat for Naruto to sit down next to him. The blonde shinobi did, and waited for his sensei to say more.

Matey warbled something and Jaytwo translated, "Even if we signaled for assistance it is unlikely anyone will arrive in time. We are currently in the outer rim territories, there are few inhabited planets and settlement in this region of the galaxy. There is a high percentage chance that if anyone answering our call for help they will most not be friendly. The outer rim of the galaxy is a known haven for pirates and criminals. Also, the disposition of the Sith is currently not known. An encounter with them at this time is not recommended."

"The Sith?" Jiraiya inquired.

"Really bad people we don't want to meet." Naruto explained.

"Ok then," said Jiraiya, who looked at Naruto with a serious face. "Naruto, we're in this together, so we need to decide together. We stop the ship and try to find someplace that can help us, or we keep going, take our chances, and likely die." Naruto didn't like either prospects, both meant they'd never likely get back home. However, one gave them at least some hope, they'd be alive, and maybe some way they'd find a way to find their planet again somehow.

His decision made, Naruto said, "We stop the ship and try to land someplace safe."

"It means we won't be able to get back home," Jiraiya told him. "At least for the foreseeable future."

Naruto simply smiled, "But, we'd be alive, ero-sensei. And if we're alive there's always some hope that we'll someday find our way back home."

He closed his eyes as Jiraiya ruffled his hair. "You gotta point there kiddo." he sighed.

"Matey, find us a place to land this thing." the toad sage ordered. The droid warbled an acknowledgment and trundled off towards the cockpit. Naruto follow his sensei who followed along after the droid. He watched as the squat machine extended another short arm which interfaced with a round receptacle on the wall. This was the second time Naruto had been in the cockpit. Outside the forward windows he could see the tunnel of light which Jaytwo had told him was hyperspace.

"The closest planet we can land at is Tatooine," Jaytwo explained as he read the navigational displays.

"What's that planet like?" Naruto asked.

"It is a desert world, there is an outpost there called Anchorhead," Jaytwo replied. "My memory banks indicate it is a small port belonging to a mining concern. However, my data is very old, but it is still very likely the planet is inhabited. The planet is often used as way station for those traveling deeper into the outer rim, and by explorers venturing into the great unknown sectors of the galaxy."

"So, we'll likely get help there." said Jiraiya.

Jaytwo nodded, "Yes sir, the probabilities are high."

"Ok, Matey, land us on Tatooine." Naruto said to the little droid. Matey warbled a reply and set to work. The tunnel of light outside the ship dropped away, and a large gray-brown planet came rapidly into view. Naruto couldn't identify any lakes or oceans on the planet, not like his world. The entire planet seemed to be one giant desert with a few mountain ranges. Some of the mountains did seem to have white tops, which meant there was water of some kind on the planet.

"So, that's Tatooine," Jiraiya folded his arms. "Looks hot."

"It is sir." Jaytwo replied. "And as I warned, the return coordinates to your homeworld are no longer in the navigational computer."

"We're committed then," Jiraiya sighed.

With their remaining fuel Matey brought the ship in for a landing. They were only able to get as far as the outskirts of a huge city they viewed in the distance upon approach, which Jaytwo said was where his memory banks told him Anchorhead was supposedly located. Once on the ground, Naruto rushed to the boarding ramp and lowered it. The heat of the desert rushed in, smacking him in the face. Slowly he stepped out, and looked out at the distance horizon. Hanging there, like a pair of glowing jewels, just above the horizon were two bright suns. This was their new home.

**From the Author**

Finally, they've made it to Tatooine! I've been working on the pacing for the story. The tendency to rush things too fast has been a problem in my past fics. Must learn patience! Rushing the story, to the dark side it leads.

Now that our travelers have finally arrived the real story can begin. Naruto and Jiraiya arrive looking for help, but unexpected discover that it might be giving it instead. The seeds for what happens later get planted in the next new chapters. Look forward to it.

Namaste.


	4. Chapter 4

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 4**

"My what a desolate place this is," Jiraiya groused as he stepped off the boarding ramp.

Jiraiya had been to the deserts of Wind Country many times. It could get pretty hot there, but that paled in comparison to the heat he was feeling now. At least it was a dry heat, humidity would have made this place unbearable. The twin suns on the horizon were the likely reasons why this place was so scorching. It was going to take some time to get used to, and it wasn't like they had much choice in the matter. Jiraiya made a mental note to keep an eye on their fluid intake. Dehydration here was going to be an ever present threat.

At least they didn't land too far from the city they spotted as they were landing. He guesstimated that they were maybe five miles away, so it was going to be a scorching walk. Five miles was nothing to him and Naruto, they usually covered a lot more than that in a day, and were usually running at the time. He wouldn't recommend running this time though. Conservation of their water was paramount until they could secure a reliable supply. For now they had only what they were carrying.

The land here was pretty flat and rocky all the way to the horizon. There wasn't much sand, but he did see a region of huge sand dunes when they were in the air. Jiraiya guessed this part of likely some kind of salt flat, that maybe sometime in the ancient past this world might have had an ocean. He wasn't a geologist, so he was only guessing to himself.

Naruto came back down the ramp. Hanging around his neck was some sort of large device that sort of looked like binoculars. Sure enough he put them up to his eyes, pressed what looked like a button, and started scanning the horizon. The device made a faint buzzing sound.

"See anything out there with those?" Jiraiya asked him.

"Nothing, nothing and more nothing." Naruto replied.

Jiraiya took a better look at Naruto, and he had to admit those new clothing did look better than what he'd been wearing. The orange wasn't so "loud". What intrigued him the most were the swords. He didn't think Naruto was interested in kenjutsu. It was a very specialized style. He knew very little of the different forms and styles of kenjutsu, but he did have a few scrolls on the subject he could give the boy to study.

"There any more of those swords?" he asked.

Naruto look his attention away from the binoculars and nodded, "I think there's one more, I can go get it for you."

"Not right now, maybe later." Jiraiya said. He didn't feel the need for it right now. If there were any dangers out there they'd see it coming long before it became a threat. Also, they could bolster their endurance by channeling chakra into their legs and outrun anything that might try chasing them.

"We've got to get to that city before those suns go below the horizon," he added. "I don't know the stars yet, I'd have to learn them before I could use them for navigation."

"I would not recommend walking, sir." came walking down the boarding ramp.

"Then how do we get there?" Jiraiya asked the droid. They landed where they did to leave enough fuel to keep the main power going. The ship was likely going to be the only place they could get in out of the heat.

"You can use the speeder bikes, they are in a storage compartment accessible underneath the ship." the droid replied, and showed him the way. The droid touched a control on the underside of the ship, and it dropped down revealing two strange looking objects.

They didn't look like any bikes he'd ever seen. These didn't have any wheels. They consisted of a seat, handlebars, and a pair of triangular boxes beneath the seat and handlebar shaft. Jaytwo flipped a switch on one and pulled it out of its harness. To Jiraiya's surprise the whole thing hung in the air even after the droid let it go. He watched as Jaytwo moved the second out, then he closed the storage compartment.

"They appear to have a full power charge," the droid commented.

"How are they staying off the ground?" Jiraiya asked.

"Gravity repulsors," the droid said. "Standard equipment on most speeders and speeder bikes. Master Gaiden used these often on his missions for the Jedi order. They have a communicator that attuned to the communications system of the Jade Falcon. These models are not armed. Master Gaiden abhorred using blasters."

"Blasters?" the toad sage tilted his head, not understanding.

"Projectile energy weapons, lasers," Jaytwo explained. "Master Gaiden did not like them. They were necessary to have on the Jade Falcon, but he refused to carry a blaster or have them mounted to his speeders. He felt they were uncivilized weaponry." The toad sage scratched the back of his head still not fully understanding, but decided to take the droid's word for it.

"We're going into town now, ero-sensei?" Naruto asked him. Jiraiya watched his charge straddle one of the speeder bikes. The machine bobbed up and down as he got on, then stabilized the boy's weight.

"I would advise doing so before the suns set," Jaytwo told them. "Sand People are known to hunt at night, and Tatooine is home to a number of nocturnal predators." Jiraiya guessed these Sand People were likely primitive natives. As for the predators, there was no telling what could be living out there.

"It would would also be wise if I accompany you." the droid added.

"Why's that?" asked Jiraiya, not really wanting to try and drive this machine with a passenger.

"You do not know the local languages," Jaytwo explained. "You will require me to act as a translator."

Jiraiya scratched his chin in thought, "But, we're talking to each other just fine."

The droid answered, "I have been programmed with universal language translation functions, this is why we are able to clearly communicate. You are from a planet that has not had open contact with off-world cultures, thus you do not have knowledge of the local languages. Until this changes you will require my services to talk to the locals."

Jiraiya sighed, "You've got a point there. So, how do I control this thing?"

It took some time for Jaytwo to explain the controls of the speeder bike. Jiraiya's first attempts at controlling the machine ended in him landing on his back. Eventually he got the hang of the thing, and he had to admit he liked it. It was much smoother than riding on the horse, he didn't feel any of the terrain below him. Naruto, he noted, was thoroughly enjoying himself as zipped around cheering loudly.

"If we find a way back home, ero-sensei, I'm keeping this!" shouted Naruto.

Jiraiya drove straight, and over swerved to avoid larger rocks. He didn't want the protocol droid to fall off, though Jaytwo insisted there was no danger of him doing that. Matey had been left to watch over the ship. The utility droid wanted to inspect the ship some more to see if any other systems needed fixing. Since the ship belonged to Gaiden Senju, Jiraiya surmised it was extremely old. It had been protected in a cave in the middle of the desert, but mechanical parts can wear out simply by the passage of time. That's what happened to the fuel lines. For all they knew the whole ship could have fallen apart the moment it tried to take off, or it could have exploded. That would have ended the ambitions of Akatsuki to acquire the nine-tails right quick.

The Toad Sage refused his thoughts on driving. They were very, incredibly far away from the Akatsuki now. So whatever plans they might have had were now dead in the water. Unless they devised a way to shunshin across unfathomable distances, or found another spaceship they weren't going to be a threat to Naruto anymore. Still, he knew he was going to have to keep an eye on the boy. They were a long way from home, in a land not their own. Jiraiya had no idea what they might encounter out there, and he knew he could have be ready to face it. He would also have to make sure that Naruto was ready to face it to. It was about about time he stopped up the boy's training.

In Jiraiya mind, the true gravity of their situation hadn't completely sunk in until they finally reached Anchorhead. They definitely weren't in Wind Country anymore. The people who walked the dusty streets of this town weren't like any people he'd ever seen. There were humans, but the rest were all manner of creatures of every shape and size. The whole notion, the whole idea, that all of these creatures were intelligent beings from other worlds in a much larger galaxy was mind blowing, and humbling. It made the struggles of Konohagakure seem very small in comparison.

Despite how "alien" Anchorhead was, the place had a kind of familiarity to it. Jiraiya had been all over the Elemental Countries. His travels took him to many places. They were often very unsavory places. It comforted him to see that despite the vast distance and cultural differences there were certain things that seemed to be universal. The looks he and Naruto were getting, he was familiar with quite well. He knew the predatory look of someone who thought they saw an easy mark. Quite a number of these "people" were giving him that look.

"Don't need to know the language to understand what they're thinking," he commented out loud when he spotted a small group of aliens whispering to each other while him pass by. He just smiled at thought that these people probably didn't know what a ninja was. If they tried anything, they were going to find out, and then wish they hadn't.

"Pardon sir?" Jaytwo inquired.

"Its nothing," Jiraiya lied, keeping an eye on the unsavory group.

An hour after arriving in Anchorhead, Jiraiya was being to think that maybe coming to Tatooine wasn't that great an idea. Nobody seemed interested in helping them, especially when they didn't have money. That was something he had thought of. What were they going to do about money. The money he brought with him was useless on this world. A few people were interested in buying Jaytwo, probably because they knew how old the droid was. A fully functional 4,000 year old droid would likely bring in a lot of money, but Jiraiya wasn't stupid. They were depending on the droid for communication. That is, until they learn the local language, or languages. Jiraiya took note that the people of Anchorhead spoke several different distinct dialects.

"I wonder what Sakura-chan and Tsunade-obachan are doing right now." Naruto stood looking up at the stars. Jiraiya reached out and patted the boy on the shoulder.

"They'll be fine," he reassured him. "We are due back in Konoha in a couple of years. Maybe we can find a way back in that time. Who knows?" Despite Naruto's earlier confidence, he didn't think they would ever see home again. If they did, it would be a miracle.

"We'd better get back to the ship, or else we'll be sleeping on the street tonight." he said. As they went down the street to where they parked their speeder bike, Jiraiya noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.

He sighed, "Amateurs." It was that group for earlier, they were trying to be stealthy, and not doing a good job of it. They never dealt with ninja before, and it really showed.

"There's five of them," Naruto commented. Jiraiya was impressed the boy noticed them with the way he'd been running around fascinated by all the sights and sounds of the city.

"I didn't think you noticed them." he said.

Naruto frowned, "Konohamaru sneaks better than these guys." Jiraiya remembered the grandson of the late Sandaime Hokage. The little boy idolized Naruto, and often followed him around like a lost puppy. He was like a tiny version of Naruto himself. Jiraiya didn't envy whoever got the job of training him in the ways of the shinobi.

"Is something wrong?" Jaytwo asked, oblivious to the situation that was developing.

"See that doorway," Jiraiya pointed to a large building on the left side of the street. It was one of the many shops that dotted the street, and was one of the few that was still open after dark.

The droid nodded, "Yes, I do sir."

"When I tell you to take cover, I want you to hide in there until I tell you to come out." Jiraiya ordered. He didn't know what sort of weapons the people on this world used. There was these blasters that Jaytwo had mentioned. He'd seen people wearing strange devices on their hips. The hand grips were similar to those on hand crossbows some ninja used. Others carried larger, longer weapons that looked too fragile to be melee weapons. These were likely some type of long range weapon. One of their pursuers carried a weapon like that.

"Oh my," Jaytwo replied in alarm. "I shall do so, sir."

Jiraiya noticed that two people from the group were now missing. Ahead of them, past the open shop was an alley way cloak in shadow. If he were going to waylay someone that would be the sort of place he'd do it in. Sure enough, he could make out two dark figures moving in among the shadows.

"Two in the alley," he told Naruto. "The tall female with a topknot, and the guy with the big green head, bulging eyes, and snout like mouth." The boy nodded.

"That would be a Rodian, sir." said Jaytwo.

"You, shut up and take cover now." Jiraiya barked. The droid immediately turned off and walked towards the open shop. Jiraiya with Naruto beside him kept walking, and eventually reached the opening the alley.

"Disarm only, nothing lethal unless necessary." he told Naruto. The blonde's only reply was a nod that he understood. Jiraiya didn't want to deal with whatever this place called law enforcement. Assuming this place even had a magistrate or a sheriff of any kind.

The two from the alley came out, weapons drawn, and the rest came running in from behind just like he was expecting. Jiraiya wasn't at all surprised when Naruto suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. He noticed the boy stealthily switch places with a kage bunshin about five minutes ago.

"Not bad," he complimented, then set his full attention to the people surrounding him. They were visibly perplexed by Naruto's sudden disappearance. This provided Jiraiya the perfect opening. His hands flew through a quick series of seals, then he focused and released his chakra.

"Doryuu Taiga no Jutsu!"

In that instant, he lept into the air and alighted to the room of the adjacent building. The street below suddenly went from bone dry to muddy in an instant. The muggers cried out in alarm, and yelped as they began to fall over. Two discharged their weapons as they fell. Jiraiya marveled at the bright, glowing pulse of light that burst from the tip of the weapon, and blew a nice sized hole in the wall of one of the closed shops. That had to have been the blaster Jaytwo had told him about.

"Now its our turn!" he looked up a cloud of Narutos began to rain from the sky. The toad sage still marveled at how many kage bunshin the boy could create all at once. He counted at least one hundred, and he knew the boy could make even more than that if he pushed himself.

The fight, Jiraiya wouldn't really call it that, didn't last long. The sea of Narutos overwhelmed the muggers by sheer force of numbers. Before long they were all out cold on the ground which had now returned to normal as the effect of his jutsu wore off. With a great pop, the kage bunshin all dispelled at once leaving the real Naruto standing in the middle of the carnage.

A plain looking human woman came running out of the open shop, probably to investigate the noise. Jiraiya watched her look over each of the fallen muggers, then she began to say something rather animatedly to Naruto. Jiraiya didn't understand her language, of course, but the woman didn't seem upset. In fact, she was smiling.

"Jaytwo, get out here!" Jiraiya called for the droid as he jumped down to street level. This surprised the woman but she didn't run away.

"Is it safe?" the protocol droid asked as he emerged from the doorway.

Jiraiya gestured towards the woman, "What's she saying?" The droid conversed with the woman for a moment, then turned to him.

"She says there has been an outstanding bounty out on these men for some time," Jaytwo explained. "Apparently they didn't ask permission from someone named Gardulla the Elder to work these streets, she says. After they ignored several warnings, Gardulla put a bounty out on them." This was language Jiraiya understood. Bounties meant money, and money was something they didn't have. This place ran on money and only money. He was quite familiar with places like this.

"Does she know where we can turn these guys in for the bounty?" Jiraiya asked.

After Jaytwo asked the question, he replied. "Yes, sir. She does."

Jiraiya told Naruto to make a few kage bunshin to carry the unconscious muggers. The woman was very surprised by this, but still didn't run away from them. Half an hour later they were walking into the building Jiraiya guessed as the local office of the magistrate. The man at the desk had pasty gray skin, and instead of hair he had long tentacles growing out of his head.

He, Jaytwo and the woman exchanged words for a few moments, then he turned to regard Jiraiya. "He asks if you'd like the rewards money in cash or as credit chip." Jaytwo explained.

"Cash," replied Jiraiya. He didn't know what a credit chip was, so it was better to stick with a known quantity. After the muggers were dropped into holding cells by Naruto's kage bunshin the man produced a small, but hefty bag of coins. Jiraiya didn't know how much the bounty was, he'd have to figure that out later with the help of the droid.

"The magistrate says the bounty for each man was one hundred thousand peggats." said the droid.

"Five hundred thousand," Naruto gaped. "Is that a lot?"

Jiraiya shrugged, "Hopefully, it might get us the fuel we need to keep that ship running." With the transaction complete they left the magistrate's office and headed back towards the shop where they first met the woman.

"What's her name?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya wanted to know too. She wasn't his kind of woman, rather plain looking, not really all that pretty, but she had a kind demeanor about her. And, apparently without really asking for anything in return she helped them out.

"She says her name is Shmi Skywalker," replied the droid. "We spoke in the shop when your altercation took place. I spoke to her of your situation, and she believes that she can be of some assistance to you."

This put Jiraiya on guard, but any local help they could find was better than no help. "What sort of help?" he asked.

"She was once a slave to Gardulla the Elder," Jaytwo explained. "She was in the store to also hide from those men. They know who she is, and she says that they would have killed her because of her past association."

"So we saved her life," stated Naruto. He frowned at the talk of slavery.

"More than that sir, apparently she has a five year old son." the droid continued. "He is currently staying with a friend here in Anchorhead. They are here on business in the city, and originally come from a nearby starport town called Mos Espa. I do not have such a town on record, but she says it was established one hundred years ago."

Jiraiya thought for a moment then said, "Ask her if we can get our ship fixed the refueled in this Mos Espa place."

After briefly speaking with the woman, Jaytwo replied, "They have full facilities for making repairs to the ship and refueling, sir."

"Ok, tell her if she's willing to show us the way we'll fly her home with her son tonight." After the droid spoke for a moment, Jiraiya was surprised when Shmi grabbed him in a hug. He blushed, unusually embarrassed by the contact.

"She thanks you very much," Jaytwo translated. "They would have had to wait until morning to return home, and the journey is usually not very safe riding in a cart."

After picking up Shmi's son , they all headed back to the speeder bikes. Jiraiya had Shmi and her son ride with him, while Jaytwo rode with Naruto. There was something about Shmi's son that Jiraiya couldn't put his finger on. The boy was named Anakin, he had bright, inquisitive eyes and was usually mature acting for his age. Jiraiya noted that the boy kept staring at Naruto and the droid during the ride to the Jade Falcon.

When they reached the ship the little boy became extremely excited and ran up the ramp despite verbal protests from his mother. As Jiraiya reached the top of the ramp he saw the Anakin running around Matey in giddy happiness.

"Apparently he is rather excited to see droids like us," Jaytwo said. "We are four thousand years old, many droids of our age were likely decommissioned long ago. The only models that might still be functioning today are those in private collections and in the great droid museum on Coruscant."

"That's nice," Jiraiya said. "Have her tell Matey how to get to Mos Espa." He guessed correctly that they still enough fuel to fly to Mos Espa. Shmi directed Matey to the starport town, which was very large by Jiraiya's reckoning. The lights he saw were that of a huge metropolis of low buildings. In the center of town was what looked like a huge colosseum. Soon they were on the ground, paid the landing fee, arranged to have the ship fully serviced, and followed Shmi and Anakin back to their home.

All the while something nagged at Jiraiya. He could feel something strange being in Mos Espa, here in Shmi's home. It felt, somehow, like they were meant to be here for some reason, but he couldn't understand why. What he did know is that it involved Anakin and Naruto somehow. They were meant to meet Shmi and Anakin, and that both worried and comforted him at the same time.

**From the Author**

Finally, they meet up with the Skywalkers, now the main story can begin. I promise things will pick up from here. I wanted to pace myself I didn't rush through this part of the story. The next chapter will see a short time-skip of about six months, and you might see time-jumps from time to time throughout the entirety of the story.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya will be stepping up Naruto's training. This includes teaching him how to access Sage Mode (though this is still a long way off). Several events will take place that helps earn Naruto a reputation on Tatooine. To the poor denizens he's something of a hero, and to the lowlifes he's their worst nightmare. However, Naruto will need to earn that reputation, and that will take time. Please look forward to it.

Namaste.


	5. Chapter 5

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 5**

Six months later...

Naruto throttled down his speeder bike and pulled up in front of Shmi and Anakin's house in the slave quarter of Mos Espa. He and Jiraiya had been staying with them after their arrival, and neither of the two shinobi felt right about staying for free. The money from the bounties collected the night they met mostly went to fixing up the Jade Falcon. Because the ship was so old most of the system had to be either repaired or replaced. It was a miracle they even made it to Tatooine alive. The ship could have torn itself apart upon jumping to lightspeed or could have blow up at almost any moment. The hull was well preserved, but age alone made many of the materials inside brittle. The droids were in similar shape. The insulation on their wiring was crumbling, and they were starting to short out. To Naruto's surprise, little Anakin offered to do the repairs on the droids, and he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Naruto noted that Anakin was the small slave community's go-to person when they had something that need to be fixed. He also did regular maintenance on the community's shared moisture vaporator.

For the past six months Shmi tutored Naruto and Jiraiya in speaking the local language, with Jaytwo offering his own assistance. It wasn't too hard to pick up. Within two months Naruto was able to communicate reasonably well with the locals, though he still had trouble with a few words and inflections. Learning to read the local language took a little longer. It also didn't take long for Naruto to learn which way was up in Mos Espa now that he could communicate with the locals. For those he didn't understand, Anakin made him a PUT or Personal Universal Translator. The little boy was working on building a protocol droid for his mother, and needed the practice building its advanced language system.

Mos Espa was a den of scumbags and criminals. Ripe territory for a trained ninja. As the repair bills for the Jade Falcon began to eat away at their cash, Naruto went around looking for work to improve their money supply. The most lucrative and reliable jobs involved collecting bounties, or protecting caravans from the Sand People. Naruto jumped on every job of that type he could find. At first the locals were skeptical that a boy his age could do the work, but a few spoke of rumors of a boy who took down the gang in Anchorhead that Gardulla the Elder and Jabba the Hutt wanted brought in. He proved himself on one caravan trip to some of the more isolated settlements when a band of Tusken Raiders attacked.

Of the five mercs hired for the job, he was the only one not killed or seriously wounded. Alone he protected a caravan of two hundred people against an entire tribe of Sand People. He summoned an army of kage bunshin and using Rasengan he ran the attackers off. That day Naruto became something of a legend in Mos Espa. Within six months almost everyone knew who he was, and they knew not to get on his bad side. Jiraiya hadn't been sitting on his laurels either, though Naruto knew the toad sage was contributing in another way. He was gathering information, back home that was his forte. Now he was gathering and selling info to the Hutts about criminal activities in the city that they didn't authorize or get a cut off. It was dirty, shady work but it paid well. The jobs neither shinobi would accept were assassinations. The two of them decided to set standards, and they kept them. Killing was a fact of life for ninja, but they used lethal force as a last resort.

Naruto entered and tossed a small box to the five year old at the dinner table. He was working on some piece of technology with a sensor probe device of some kind. "Went to Tosche Station and got you those micro power converters you needed to get the moisture vaporator going again."

Anakin easily caught the small box and smiled, "Thanks Naruto, now I can finish refurbishing this power relay."

"Why don't we just replace that thing, you said it was really old." Naruto suggested. They had the money to get a new one.

Anakin shook his head, "GX-10s aren't as reliable as the old GX-8s. They've got a flaw in their logic unit, and the refrigeration rods aren't standardized so replacing them is expensive." Naruto still marveled at Anakin's maturity and skill when it came to fixing machines. It seemed to come naturally to the little boy.

"Where's your mom and ero-sensei?" he noticed that Shmi wasn't around as usual, and he guessed Jiraiya was either out drinking at the local cantina or gathering info.

"Jiraiya's taking a nap, and mom was called away to Watto's shop." Anakin replied.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, he didn't like the idea of his friends being slaves to anyone. For their sake, he didn't make many waves among the slavers, for now. His presence and growing reputation in Mos Espa did help to reduce the number of public beatings in the slave quarter. He also refused to take any jobs from slavers, and he refused to work guard duty on slave caravans. Why use slaves and cause needless suffering when you use droids, was his thoughts.

"Why?" he asked.

The five year old shrugged, "Don't know, she said she'd be right back though."

As if on cue Shmi walked in and plopped down on one of the chairs at the table. She had a tired look on her face that made Naruto concerned. In front of her she sat down a clipboard of paperwork, then rubbed her face.

"Shmi-okasan, what's wrong?" he asked her.

Shmi regarded him with a tired smile. To Naruto she was like the mother he never had. She and Anakin had become his latest precious people, and he would do anything to help them. He and Jiraiya both made enough money to free the two of them from slavery. However, he didn't feel right about freeing just Shmi and Ani while the whole community was still enslaved. They didn't have that kind of money.

"I'm ok," she sighed. "Watto is coming here tonight to do an inspection." Naruto had seen some of these "inspections" before. Most were benign, the slave owners just wanted to inspect the living conditions of their assets, and others used them as an excuse to humiliate and punish their slaves publicly. He had to leave during those times, or he might jump in and do something that would cause all of them lots of trouble. Slave owners, however, were forbidden from killing their slaves. The Hutts enforced that rule without mercy, thus the slave mortality rate was low.

"Then ero-sensei and I should get scarce for a while," said Naruto, and he made certain that Shmi saw the very unhappy expression on his face.

"We'll be ok," Shmi reassured him. "I know how to handle Watto." He smiled at that, Shmi certainly did know the old Toydarian well. Like many merchants in Mos Espa he was exceedingly greedy, and even Naruto had learned to exploit this weakness.

Watto didn't particularly like Naruto, and the blonde shinobi was just fine with that. His reputation in Mos Espa intimidated the winged alien. Watto also knew who Jiraiya was and what he did for a living. The toad sage had enough dirt on the old Toydarian to get him into serious trouble with a lot of people, so Watto went out of his way not to antagonize him. For this reason, the junk monger treated Shmi and Anakin better than most other slave owners despite his reputation for being prejudice against humans.

He asked, "When's he coming?"

"Before nightfall," Shmi replied. "Which would make it five hours from now."

Naruto sighed with some relief. "At least he gave us plenty of notice this time.

"Ani, Watto said he wants you back at the shop tomorrow." Shmi told her son. "Can you get the vaporator working tonight?" Anakin nodded.

"Naruto got me the parts I needed," he said. "I'll be done here in a few minutes." Naruto watched as the little boy pulled out the power converters and started soldering them to the device he'd been servicing.

"Good, I'll get us an early dinner started." Shmi immediately went to the adjoining kitchen, and soon Naruto heard the sound of pots and pans bumping together.

Several hours later, after dinner, Naruto and Jiraiya retreated to a nearby rooftop so they could keep an eye on the house. They watched as the grizzled old Toydarian arrived with a pair of droid bodyguards. Even from here he could smell the alien. He stank of those egg seeds he imported from Toydaria. How anyone could eat something that smelled that bad he couldn't fathom.

"Ero-sensei, I think we should do something about this situation." he said after a long silence.

"I agree," Jiraiya nodded.

"But, not just Shmi-okasan and Ani, but all of the slaves." Naruto said, expanding his statement.

His sensei gave him an incredulous look, "We make good money, but not that good, gaki. Though, I get what you're saying."

Naruto replied, "I've got an idea, but its gonna take me a long time to figure it out."

"Oh, what sort of idea?" Jiraiya asked him.

"We start our own hidden village here on Tatooine," he wasn't looking at his sensei, but he could almost feel the look of shock on the old man's face.

"Do you realize how much money we'd need to do that, plus we'd need lots and lots of manpower." Jiraiya told him. "The First Hokage has to have the cooperation of several shinobi clans and over ten thousand civilians to build Konoha.)

Naruto nodded, "I've had Matey working out the numbers, we'd need about ten million peggats to free all of the slaves here in Mos Espa, and about thirty-six million peggats to buy all of the materials we'd need to build a viable settlement. That also includes a defensive wall, laser turret defense, a power reactor, and a couple of shield generators."

Jiraiya looked somewhat impressed, "You really have been thinking this through, but where would we possibly get this kind of money. Not by collecting bounties we won't."

"I think I have a way, but it won't be easy," Naruto explained. He was pretty sure it would be one the toughest, most dangerous things he ever attempted.

Jiraiya asked, "And what is that?"

Naruto paused for a moment, then replied, "We collect two krayt dragon pearls. Not the small ones, but the big ones. The kind you can only get from the deep deserts."

His sensei almost fell off the roof. "NANI!?" he exclaimed.

Neither of them had ever actually seen a krayt dragon, but they'd both seen the aftermath of their attacks. They were big creatures, very big, and very hard to kill. The Sand People hunted them as a rite of passage into adulthood, and the success rate wasn't exactly that high. There was a reason why the monsters were so feared on Tatooine. They were more feared than Rancor, which weren't native to Tatooine, but could on rare occasions be found roaming the desert. This was mostly because some kept Rancor pups as illegal exotic pets, and turned them loose when they started to get too big. Rumor has it that Jabba Desilijic Tiure had recently acquired one from some Jawas.

"I said it wouldn't be easy," Naruto reiterated.

Jiraiya's eyes were almost bulging out of his head, "I'd rather fight the Kyuubi no Youko than just one of those things. You saw that Jawa sandcrawler. It was torn open like a sack of rice!"

"We don't have to fight them," Naruto explained. "Just lure them out into the open, then take them out using explosive tags."

"But, that requires chakra ink, and we're almost fresh out." Jiraiya told him.

"Not if we use ink mixed with finely ground cortosis powder," Naruto explained further. "Getting the cortosis will be expensive, so I plan to start taking high paying jobs for now on so I can get my hands on some. The ink and paper we can get pretty cheap from a local dealer. The hardest part will be finding two elder krayt dragons and luring them into a trap." Without a supply of new kunai and shuriken, they had to use what they had left sparingly at first. Then, Naruto had found a metal shop in Mos Eisley that dealt in making tools that had a cortosis weave. They were intended for use in plasma energy systems, which produced beams that were similar to that of lightsabers. Naruto had also found that if a piece of metal had cortosis in it he could charge it with his chakra, which gave him the idea with the ink.

Jiraiya folded his arms and said, "That might work, it would require a lot of testing though."

"Yeah, and we can try making those ubertags you told me about." said Naruto, in reference to a new kind of exploding tag that Jiraiya had been developing before their impromptu journey to Tatooine.

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head nervously, "Oh yeah, those. Even I don't know how strong they are. I was making them to counter a member of the Akatsuki who is an infamous bomb nut."

"Well, ero-sensei, what do you say?" Naruto asked, he believed they could pull this off. Krayt dragon pearls were highly prized and would give them the money they needed and then some. He saw Jiraiya's expression as he thought it over for a moment.

The old man sighed, "Hell why not, its for a good cause. So, what will we call this new hidden village?"

Naruto smiled up at him and said, "We'll call it...you gotta be kidding me." In a single blinding movement he had both vibroswords out of their sheaths, and whirled on the figure that had been "attempting badly" to sneak up behind him. He quickly sliced off the arms of the assassin droid before it even had a chance to react. Jiraiya slapped an explosive tag to the droid's cylindrical body, then punted it into the air with a low kick.

"Kai!" Naruto smiled as his sensei blew the machine to pieces at the apex of its flight.

"That's the fourth damn time this week!" Jiraiya growled. "I don't know who keeps sending these things but its getting old." Naruto agreed with a nod.

Naruto said. "The question, ero-sensei, is who's trying to kill us." He could only guess that the list of suspects was going to be a long one. They'd only been in Mos Espa for six months, and they were already very well known.

Jiraiya laughed, "Oh, there's no shortage of suspects there, kiddo. Exclude the poor common folk, and you've got a list that could probably encircle this planet three times."

"Sand People?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Not their style," Jiraiya replied. "Besides, they hate droids."

"Hondo then?" Naruto wondered, recalling their encounter with the pirate from Florrum.

"Not his style either," Jiraiya shook his head. "He'd rather kill you face to face. Hondo's a pirate scumbag, but he's an honorable pirate scumbag."

Naruto thought for a moment, then slapped his fist into this palm. "Ziro!"

"That coward, his species is all backbone, but he's got none to speak of." said Jiraiya.

Naruto nodded in agreement, but said, "Yeah, but we did rat him out for embezzling peggats from the slave traders. Jabba wasn't happy." Naruto recalled the sight of the small Hutt cowering and whimpering before his much larger cousin. It was the first time Naruto had met the massive crime lord in person. Jabba was an important linchpin of the Hutt Council. His influence kept the Hutt Clans from fighting one another. Under his leadership their criminal enterprise significantly expanded. While Tatooine had a government, the Hutts effectively controlled just about everything.

"No he wasn't," Jiraiya laughed. "Ziro got exiled to Nal Hutta last I heard, and is under strict financial controls by his kin. He'd need lots of money to hire assassins, which means he'd have to be getting some from somewhere other than his fellow Hutts."

"Well, we pissed off somebody bad enough to want us dead." said Naruto, then it suddenly came to him.

"What if it's more than one person, ero-sensei?" he postulated.

Jiraiya nodded, "That's possible, which means we've got a big problem. Before we do anything else we need to deal with this. I'll start gathering information, someone has to have heard something. Most of the assassins on Tatooine work for the Hutts, so if someone from offworld came to do a job somebody is going to know."

Naruto looked towards the house, "What about Shmi-okasan and Ani?"

"Killing a slave on Tatooine will have the Hutts breathing down your neck," said Jiraiya. "I doubt they'd be in any serious danger, though it depends on how desperate our enemies are."

Naruto knew what that meant, and the thought showed on his face. "I don't want to leave them either," said Jiraiya. "But, if our enemies get desperate they could get caught in the crossfire, Hutts or no Hutts."

"We should tell them we're leaving though." Naruto said, not wanting to just up and leave without letting their dear friends know why. Jiraiya nodded in agreement to that.

Later after Watto finished his "inspection" and left, the two ninja returned and let the Skywalkers know what was going on. The decision elicited a lot of tears form Anakin, but Shmi was understanding. Naruto reassured her that they would still be watching over them from a distance, and they'd be back after all of this was finally over. He and Jiraiya decided to leave Jaytwo with them to assist them around the house. They also left Shmi a sizable amount of money, and said they'd leave them more from time to time when they could.

That night the two shinobi slept on board the Jade Falcon. The repairs to the ship were done. Naruto took Gaiden Senju's old cabin and refurbished it for his own use. Jiraiya also had his own private cabin. Both had been learning to fly the spaceship with Matey's help. They weren't experts by a long shot, but they were pretty good after a lot of practice. Naruto was better though, so he took the controls and flew the ship to the outskirts. Too many people knew the Jade Falcon was their vessel, and where they parked it. They still had the speeder bikes, so they could easily get around quickly.

Before going to bed, Naruto activated the motion activated laser defense system. It was mostly intended to keep minocks and womprats away, but if someone tried to sneak aboard they'd get a nasty surprise. The lock mechanism for the boarding ramp was also slice resistant, so only an advanced droid could get it open without blasting it. Jiraiya had also put hidden defensive seals everywhere. In his cabin, Naruto lay awake thinking about Shmi and Anakin and hoping they'd be alright. He also thought about Sakura, Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, Shikamaru, and all of his other friends back home. Slow, he drifted off to sleep.

"You summoned me, Master Plagueis."

Dark Sidious bowed to the black cloaked Sith Lord. They were in their secret meeting place in the industrial district of Coruscant. It was out of the way, people usually didn't take much notice of ships coming and going here, and fewer still asked questions. This made it the perfect place for them to plan out the end of the Galactic Republic.

"I sense a disturbance in the Force," said Lord Plagueis.

"I too have sensed it, though I do not know from where." Sidious replied.

"Yes, the source eludes me as well." the Dark Lord sounded apprehensive. Sidious had never heard his master speak in that sort of tone before.

"There is a new power rising in the galaxy," Plagueis turned to face him. "That it should come as the next phase of the plan begins to come into fruition is no coincidence."

Sidious nodded, "The expansion of the Trade Federation is causing contention in the Senate. Chancellor Valorum will be pressed into taking steps to slow their development. That will lead to a confrontation, which we can take advantage of."

"That part of the plan hasn't changed, my friend," said Lord Plagueis with a smile on his Muun face. "The Trade Federation and other consortiums will be forced into a confrontation with the Republic. Chancellor Valorum will be forced to step down in disgrace, and you shall become Supreme Chancellor. With myself as co-chancellor, of course."

"And what of this new power we sense?" Sidious asked him.

"Until we can divine its source we proceed on our present course," Plagueis told him. "For a millenium the grand plan of the Sith has changed hands. You and I, my apprentice, shall finally see the seeds of that plan bare fruit."

Darth Sidious smiled, "The destruction of the Jedi and the restoration of the Sith Empire."

Then he frowned, "But, if this rising power threatens the plan."

"Then, we shall either make it subservient to us, or we shall see it destroyed." Darth Plagueis said as he turned with a flourish. Sidious watched his master go, leaving him in the dark room alone.

"Maul," he said to the darkness.

"Master," his Dathomiri apprentice stepped out of the shadows.

"I am sending you on another mission," he told him, and smiled.

**From the Author**

Finally, chapter five is finished! I'm going to take a short break from this story to work on other ones, but rest assured this story will continue. I think I'll do the same thing I've done with this story. Write five chapters or so then post them. That way instead of just getting one chapter every so often you get more at a time. It gives me a month each time to get new chapters done so I'm not rushing to finish them.

Palpatine tells the story of Darth Plagueis to Anakin Skywalker in the third prequel film. There's an interesting story behind this Sith Lord. He was Palpatine's master originally, as he is here. Palpatine is the one who killed him. I'll let that spoiler go because we know Plagueis' apprentice kills him in his sleep. I found all of this researching the Wookiepedia.

Expect there to be a whole lot more action from here on out. Naruto and Jiraiya will be contending with a conspiracy to kill them by an unseen enemy, or enemies. There will be cameos by a few notable characters from The Clone Wars series. After that story arc, Naruto and Jiraiya go on the hunt for a pair of deadly Krayt Dragons. This will set the stage for what happens when Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, and Queen Amidala arrive on Tatooine. This will be where the story begins to diverge from what happens in the movies and TV series. Please look forward to it.


	6. Chapter 6

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 6**

"So, exactly where are we going?"

Jiraiya peered out at the landscape below as Naruto worked the flight controls of the Jade Falcon. He trusted in the boy's burgeoning skills as a pilot. Naruto was better at flying the huge spaceship than he was, at any rate. Jiraiya also knew Matey was right behind them, ready to take over in the event something happened.

"I figure we need a secure base of operations," Naruto replied. "I've got a place in mind Someplace that's out of the way." Jiraiya searched the landscape flying by under them, but all he could see were sand dunes, and more sand dunes. To keep from being noticed, or detected by sensors, they was flying the ship low to the ground.

"Where are we?" he asked. Still not fully familiar with the cockpit instrument panels, he couldn't make heads or tails of the navigational displays.

"About three hundred and twenty clicks north of Mos Eisley," answered Naruto. "This is what they call the Dune Sea."

"Looks like a whole lot of nothing," Jiraiya sat back and groused.

"Looks can be deceiving, ero-sensei." Naruto smiled at him. As the Jade Falcon crested over a mountainous dune of sand, Jiraiya could finally see something other than a sand dune rising from the desert floor.

"I wouldn't exactly call that inconspicuous." he commented. Rising from the floor of the desert was a great plateau of stone. Jiraiya guessed it had to be at least fifty miles across and over two hundred feet high.

As Naruto pulled back on the flight stick, Jiraiya could see the top of the plateau come into view. It was mostly flat with a few brief mills. The most distinguishing feature, however, was what lay in the center. It looked as if some mighty hammer had descended from the sky and struck the stone in the middle. What was left behind was a spider's web of cracks that fanned out from a wide central crater.

"Well, it is isolated," he had to admit.

"There's no way in or out except by air." Naruto told him.

As they flew above the feature, Jiraiya realized that what he was seeing was a series of box canyons. Each one was connected to the crater in the center. The crater itself was shallow, which meant it wasn't made by some asteroid. Sure enough, as they approached the crater itself he could the remnants of what looked like metalwork and scaffolding.

"Is this an old mining site?" he asked, he heard there had once been an attempt to mine Tatooine, but most mining concerns left a long time ago.

Naruto nodded, "Very old. I looked it up, all of the old mining sites on Tatooine are mapped, except for this one. I'd guess this place is way older than the others, maybe even older than Anchorhead." Jiraiya felt his stomach fly up into his throat as the ship dove for the crater.

Jiraiya groaned, "I hate it when you do that." He heard the boy stifle a laugh. The ship evened out and began the landing sequence. Soon they were on the ground, and he quickly went the boarding ramp.

The landing platform they were on had once stood on metal struts, but those had long ago worn away to stumps, so now the cracked remnants of the platform rested on the ground. Everywhere there was evidence that people had once been in this crater, but the metal structures had all collapsed and were now heaps of jagged metal. This place was certainly very old indeed.

"How did you find this place originally?" he asked Naruto, who was now just exiting the ship.

"Way back I borrowed a T-16 for a supply run to one of the isolated villages on the other side of the Dune Sea." Naruto explained. "I saw it on my way there, and on the way back I landed to check it out. This is one of the two places I thought about us setting up a village at."

Jiraiya nodded, "Being only accessible from the air I'd say this is a very defensible position, nice find." He reached out and ruffled the blonde shinobi's hair.

"But, how would we put a village here?" he gestured to their surroundings. "This crater is the only open space, and there's all those narrow dead end canyons. Probably leftovers from when they were trying to mine this place."

Naruto dashed off towards one of the canyon openings, "Come on, ero-sensei, I'll show you how." Jiraiya followed along behind. The wall of the canyon were vertical straight up and down, and width wise they were about twice as wide as the average street in Konoha. He also noticed that the temperature in this place was considerably lower than he expected. The high walls were blocking the light of the twin suns from reaching the bottom, which helped keep the place about ten degrees cooler than the desert outside.

Jiraiya saw Naruto point somewhere along the uneven canyon wall, then saw the boy dart off in that direction and vanish. It was an opening in the side of the rock wall. From the looks of it the opening wasn't natural, but man made. Bits of metal here and there suggested there might have once been a door there.

"The miners left this behind," he heard Naruto from inside. The toad sage stepped in and immediately knew this was no natural cave. There was furniture in here covered in a heavy layer of dust. It was old and dilapidated, but they looked to be in somewhat good condition considering their age. They looked like worktables of some kind. Naruto had brushed away the dust to reveal what looked like tools of some kind that Jiraiya couldn't identify.

"I think they used this place to fix mining equipment." said Naruto.

"Are there any more places like this?" Jiraiya asked and Naruto nodded.

The boy pointed back in the direction they came from. "There's a huge opening big enough for the Falcon to fly into that way, I think it was used as a hanger for ships."

The hyperactive ninja nearly bowled him over as he ran past to the door. "There something else, too." he said wave for him to follow. "Ero-sensei, you've got to see this."

Jiraiya followed him back to the crater. In the distance he could see the cavern opening Naruto spoke of, and by his own guesstimation figured the ship could easily fit. In fact, it was large enough for two ships to fly in and out of. He follow Naruto in another direction, and they were soon walking down one of the narrower canyon passages.

"You said this was one of the two sites you were thinking about for the village, what's the other one like?" Jiraiya asked him out of curiosity.

The blonde shrugged, "It's not as good as this one. There's a semicircle of natural stone south of Bestine about one hundred fifty miles. It isn't as big as this place, and we'd need to build a defensive wall in close the village in."

"I agree this is a better location." Jiraiya nodded. As they continued walking Jiraiya noticed something, or to be more accurate he felt something. The air was growing moist, more so than he had ever felt on this planet since their arrival. And, the air was getting cooler, much cooler.

Soon they came upon a cave opening, which Jiraiya could tell this time was natural. Carefully following the younger ninja, he ventured into the depths of the cave. In the distance he could hear water dripping, and there was a steady cool breeze. Then, after ducking through an opening in the rock Jiraiya came to a sight that made his jaw drop.

Naruto had a small handheld light and was shining it around the cavern. In the light Jiraiya saw huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and below them was an enormous pool of crystal clear water. He took his own light out and shined it into the gloom, and noted that the light didn't reach the other side the cavern.

"I had Matey test the water, its safe to drink." said Naruto. Jiraiya knelt down and scooped up some of the clear water in his hands. He brought them up to his lips and drank, just a little. Instantly, his eyes went wide and he reached down to get some more.

"Damn that good water!" he shouted, after several drinks.

"Yeah, its clean and has lots of good minerals dissolved in it." said Naruto.

Jiraiya pointed in the direction the breeze was coming from. "There's an opening somewhere letting in the air in," he surmised. "It blows in here form the Dune Sea, comes down here and hits the cooler air. Water condenses on these stalactites, and drips into this pool kinda like a natural moisture vaporator. Exactly how much water is here, or do you know?" Naruto nodded.

"Matey estimates somewhere around sixty to eighty million gallons." Jiraiya nearly dropped his light.

"If people knew we had this much water it would start a war." he commented. This place would put every moisture farmer out of business, which would upset the Hutts who took a small cut of all water sales on the planet. Jiraiya ran the numbers in his head, and the value of this water in peggats was astronomical.

"Yeah, I know." said Naruto.

"Though, this could give us leverage." said Jiraiya. "Water is more valuable on this planet than gold, in most places. This much water could give us a huge advantage over any other settlement on this planet." The ideas were already starting to flow in his head.

Naruto asked, "Like what?"

"Self-sustainability," Jiraiya replied. "We could grow our own crops with this water, and raise our own livestock. There would be no need to import food from the outside, and we'd still have more than enough water to export in trade for other kinds of goods."

After a few moments of thought he add, "Ok, there's plenty of room to build a fair sized village here. Almost a city actually, probably not as big as Mos Espa but still pretty big. We'd have a constant supply of fresh water, natural protect from the heat of the sun, and the location is only accessible via the air making it reasonably easy to defend. And, since this is the highest point in the desert we'd be able to see anything that approaches the city by air or ground."

"And, we're nowhere near any of the usual Sand People migration routes." said Naruto.

"Ok, when we deal with this assassin problem this is where we'll build the village." Jiraiya proclaimed. "You still haven't said what we should call this place." He regarded his student, who rubbed his chin in thought.

"At first I thought maybe we should call it Hope," Naruto said. "But, it should be named something more. Something that really explains what this place will be all about, what it will really mean to all the people of Tatooine."

Jiraiya smiled and said, "Sukui."

He looked over at Naruto, who had a wide smile on his face. "Sukui, in our tongue it means Salvation."

"Mos Sukui," said Naruto. "To match the names of Mos Espa, and Mos Eisley and such." Jiraiya nodded, also thinking it was a nice idea.

"It does add some familiarity to the name," he admitted. "Could help attract more people to the village, though we'd have to be very careful with who we allow to live here."

Naruto shrugged, "True, but we could train people to be ninja, and eventually appoint our own ANBU."

"That's long term," Jiraiya told him. "It would be years before any recruits were ready to take on serious assignments as ninja. In the beginning we'd need a more traditional security force." He couldn't see them having a sizable force of ninja for a very long time. Perhaps ten years or more, and that all depending on how many people they could get who would be interested in signing up. Being a ninja was dangerous work.

"Heck, we don't even know if any of the people can even use chakra or not." he added as the thought crossed his mind. Was the ability to perform ninjutsu something unique to their planet, or could other races do it too. He didn't know, but would eventually find out.

"Ani can," said Naruto. "He's got huge reserves of chakra, not as huge as me, but he's got it. I could sense it whenever he was doing something really technical, or that time when Watto made him fly that podracer." Jiraiya frowned, remember that day. He never felt so nervous before. They'd only known the boy and his mother about a week when the race came up. He barely understood the language, maybe a few words, but he knew enough to know Anakin was doing something very dangerous. Luckily, the little boy got through it in one piece, though he didn't win the race.

"I seriously hate that buzzard," he said with venom. "So, Anakin could potentially do it you say. Then there's hope that there could be others that can use chakra too. Its a start I guess." He shrugged his shoulders.

They left the cave and returned to ship. Jiraiya surveyed from the crater the rest of the canyons. There were about thirty in all, each fanning out from the crater like spokes on a wagon wheel. They weren't straight, but meandered in semi-straight lines. He couldn't decide if they were man made or were formed naturally. According to ancient local legend Tatooine had once been a lush planet, but in a terrible war the surface had been destroyed leaving it the barren desert world it is today.

"I wonder what they were trying to mine for here." he wondered out loud.

"Matey said there was a lot of something called bronzium in the soil," Naruto replied. "Apparently it can be found all over the galaxy, which is probably why this mine was abandoned."

Jiraiya nodded, "It became uneconomical to keep the mine going, I'd gather. I've seen bronzium statues sitting in the front of the capitol building in Bestine. Shmi has pots made out of the stuff."

He turned and put his hand on the blonde's shoulder, "Ok, we've got a hidden base to operate from. Now, we've got an assassin to track down. And, I've got a few ideas on how to do that." Naruto nodded.

"What do we do first, ero-sensei?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya smiled, "The classic strategies are the best, we draw the assassin out using decoys. And, that gaki, is where you come in. Better get a lot of rest, because tomorrow you're going to be making a lot of kage bunshin."

**From the Author**

I said I was going to take a break, but I'm on such a roll right now that I might as well just keep going. Why the hell not! Now Naruto and Jiraiya have a site planned out for their new village, all they have to do now is take on whoever is trying kill them. Some action is coming next chapter. Please look forward to it.


	7. Chapter 7

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 7**

The streets of Mos Espa were very busy about mid day. That was why Naruto and Jiraiya picked that time to make a walkabout of the city. They wanted to be seen, especially by their would-be assassins. Naruto leisurely walked the city street with over a dozen of his kage bunshin surrounding him. He disguised himself with a henge as a Togruta female, not an uncommon sight on Tatooine. Togruta and Twi'lek girls were highly sought after in the outer rim, especially as slaves. Naruto was keenly aware that there were a lot of slaves in Mos Espa.

His other kage bunshin were disguised with henge of their own, except for one, which strode alongside another disguised as his sensei. While the other kage bunshin made no effort to draw attention to themselves, those two walked down the center the street, and were doing all they could to stand out without being a spectacle. Naruto knew his sensei wasn't far, he saw him in among the crowd in the henge of a Jawa. People gave them a wide berth because of their reputation was pickpockets. The little, high-pitch speaking people were considered something close to vermin, that was until somebody needed some piece of tech that they had.

They'd been at this for over an hour and Naruto was starting to wonder if their assassin was going to show. Maybe with this many people nearby they were reluctant to make a move. But, Jiraiya insisted this was the best course. They were goading their attackers into making a move by presenting themselves as easy targets. They were taunting them, showing them they weren't afraid, and that would likely bring them out into the open. That's when they'd spring the trap.

"Movement on the shop roof at three o'clock, I saw a flash of metal." came Jiraiya's voice over Naruto's comlink.

Naruto casually looked in that direction. He said, "Somebody's laying prone up there, I think they've got one of those really long sniper rifles."

"Wait until they make a move," Jiraiya told him.

"Hai, ero-sensei." Naruto acknowledged, he slid his hand down to the shuriken pouch at his hip. Luckily the cloak he wore around his currently female form disguised the movement.

The shot rang out in the street, instantly causing a panic. Naruto saw his undisguised kage bunshin vanish in a poof, the other disguised as the toad sage lept for the rooftops. He quickly gave a rapid signal in the secret Konohagakure handsigns to the other kage bunshin, and they all jumped out of the panicking crowd. The prone figure was on its feet and running across the rooftops away from the scene. They all gave chase, pouring on the speed. Jiraiya, his henge now dispelled, fell in beside him.

"Don't lose him!" Jiraiya yelled.

"He isn't getting away!" Naruto growled, eyes turning red and changing to slits.

Head he could see a few of his kage bunshin, Rasengan in hand, make their move. One missed his mark and fell to the streets below, but another hit the rooftop just behind the assassin sending up an explosion that knocked him off his feet. Naruto and the rest were on him in just a few seconds, but before they could make a grab for him the assassin pulled a pair of blasters out of his cloak.

"Scatter!" Jiraiya warned. Naruto dodged but a hot bolt hit him in the stomach. However, he was prepared and used kawarimi just as one of the blaster trained on him. He wished he could have seen the look on the assassin's face as he popped out only to be replaced by a large metal drum. A drum covered in exploding tags. The blast threw the assassin off the rooftop and sent one of his blasters flying.

Naruto dove to the ground followed closely by Jiraiya. The assassin was getting back to his feet, and raising his single blaster to defend himself. Naruto threw the kunai he'd fetched from his pouch, striking the assassin's blaster and splitting its barrel down the middle.

"Its pointless, give up!" he warned, drawing his twin vibroswords to show their attacker he meant business. Jiraiya reached the assassin before he did and grabbed the hood of their cloak. Naruto heard the sound of ripping cloth as the toad sage yanked hard in an attempt to pull the assassin off balance. The figure what emerged from the cloak wasn't what Naruto had been expecting. The he was a she, and she looked familiar. The woman was tall and lanky, with gray skin, and a bald head save for a single pony tail of black hair.

"Go fuck yourself!" she spat in his direction. Naruto saw the silvery sphere in her hand before Jiraiya did.

"Ero-sensei, bomb!" he shouted in warning and launched towards the closest rooftop. He saw Jiraiya make it to safely on the other side of the street just as the thermal detonator exploded. The rest of his kage bunshin hadn't been so lucky. As the dust cleared, Naruto just barely got a glimpse of the woman rounding the corner far ahead.

"That bitch is seriously pissing me off!" groused Jiraiya.

"I've seen here before," said Naruto, now recalling where he'd seen the woman. "In Anchorhead, she was in that gang we took down when we met Shmi-okasan."

Jiraiya's jaw dropped, "You gotta be kidding me. Is that what this is all about?"

"Lets catch her and find out." he replied giving chase across the rooftops. He reach the building where she had turned and heard blaster fire. It took a few seconds for him realize they weren't being fired at him. A pair of Twi'leks were chasing the assassin. She proved to be very acrobatic as he saw her leap and dodge around every energy bolt.

"What the hell," Jiraiya exclaimed. "I know those two, they're killers who work for the Hutts." Naruto had to make a quick decision. Yes he wanted to stop the attempts on their lives, but he wanted to take the assassin alive.

Making up his mind, he grabbed a handful of kunai and launched them towards the Twi'leks. He aimed for just in front of them. "Kai!" he formed the mudra and detonated the explosive tags attached to the blades. The explosion wasn't big, but it was enough to knock the two aliens unconscious.

"She's getting away from us!" Jiraiya warned pointing in her direction.

Naruto formed another mudra, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Six clones popped in around him.

"Go that way, cut her off!" he ordered and the six immediately jumped across the street to the other rooftops.

Naruto leaned forward and let his arms trail behind him for stability as he pumped chakra into his legs. He gained a tremendous burst of speed. It looked like for a moment that they had lost sight of the woman, but Naruto spotted one his kage bunshin waving at him. He raced to him and the clone pointed to a low building at the end of a shabby looking city block.

"What is that place?" Naruto asked Jiraiya as soon as he caught up.

"Brothel," Jiraiya panted from the run. "A good place to hide, whoever this woman is she's pretty smart."

"Ok, lets..." Naruto started to jump down to the street below but Jiraiya stopped him.

"Hold on, gaki, that no place for a kid." he told him. "I'll go in, you go to the roof and cover the back entrance." Naruto sighed, but did as his sensei said. The moment the toad sage went in through the first door he jumped across the street and easily found the back entrance. There was no sign of the gray skinned assassin. The few footprints at the back door looked old.

He waited for what seemed like forever, to him at least. His attention was drawn from the door to a sound coming from one of the open windows. Using Ki Nobori no Shugyo he walked down the wall just far enough to get a glimpse inside, and was immediately transfixed. A beautiful Twi'lek girl, her blue skin glistening with sweat, cried out in pleasure as she was being taken by some human guy from behind. He pulled her arms back so he could slam her rapid fire, making her ample chest and long head tentacles bounce and sway with the rhythm.

"Whoa," he uttered, feeling his pants grow a little tight. His attention was yanked away from the mesmerizing scene when he heard one of his kage bunshin call for him. The back door burst open with a slam, and the assassin ran out. He jumped to the alley below and gave chase while his kage bunshin followed along the rooftops.

"Stop!" he shouted, but she gave no sign of obeying. Then, just ahead he saw Jiraiya fade in from his Toton Jutsu and clothesline the woman before she had a chance to react. He and his kage bunshin surrounded her, vibroswords drawn as Jiraiya pressed her to the ground with a geta sandal clad foot. This didn't seem to stop her, as she drew a cylindrical device from her clothes. With a high-pitched whine it ignited with a blade of crimson light. Naruto recognized what it was immediately from holorecordings and various descriptions. It was a lightsaber. With a flick of his vibroblades he deflected the dead energy blade away from Jiraiya and kicked the weapon from her hand. The blade instantly deactivated and the weapon hit the ground. One of the kage bunshin picked up the weapon and handed it to him.

"Goddamn you're hard to catch," said Jiraiya. "Who do you work for, who wants us dead?"

Naruto saw her look directly at him and she said, "Its just me, only me."

"Is this because of what we did in Anchorhead?" Naruto asked her, he was intimately familiar with the length people would go to get revenge. Though killing him and his sensei seemed overkill for what they did to her and her gang.

"You've got no idea what you've done," she spat. "Because of you my gang is dead, and I've got a price on my head. You'd be doing me a favor by killing me now. Every bounty hunter on this planet is looking for me, so if I was going down I wasn't gonna to go down alone." The hate in her eyes reminded him too much of Sasuke, but he couldn't bring himself to hate her. He actually pitied her.

"What do you mean dead?" Jiraiya demanded. "We turned you into the magistrate, not the Hutts."

"Who the fuck do you think the magistrate works for!?" the woman replied with venom. "The Hutts are the law on this planet. After you turned us in he handed us off to Gordola's thugs. They tortured and murdered my crew, while they forced me to watch." Naruto felt himself grow pale and saw the color leave Jiraiya's skin as well.

"We had no way of knowing that would happen," he said. "We just arrived on this planet, we didn't even know how to speak the language."

"You somehow managed to escape, though." Jiraiya commented.

The woman laughed, "After they killed my crew, they were going to kill me next. But not right away, they decided to have some fun first. So while one of them was raping me I worked my hands free. I snapped the fucker's neck just as he blew his wad, grabbed his knife, and cut the larynx out of the other asshole. After that, I found my gear, escaped, and started hunting you assholes down."

Naruto almost felt sick, that he through his actions had caused this to happen. He thought he was doing the right thing handing her and the others over to the authorities. It was a harsh reminder of what kind of world this was, and made the establishment of their new village even more critical. How many other people suffered the same fate as this woman because of the deep corruption on this world.

"All that because you were operating in Anchorhead without the permission of the Hutts?" Jiraiya asked her.

"It was more than that," the woman admitted, looking away.

"Like what?" Naruto asked and he sheathed his swords. He signaled for his kage bunshin to also stand down.

"We weren't just mugging people," she said. "That was just for fun. What we were really doing was hijacking their shipments of glitterstim and selling them ourselves to the local brokers."

Naruto saw Jiraiya eyes nearly pop out of his head. "Are you stupid," he shouted at her. "You messed with there spice profits. Even I know that's a death sentence. What did you expect would happen if you were caught?"

"Spice?" Naruto inquired.

"Some sorta drug," Jiraiya replied. "Mined out of somewhere called Kessel. That's where the Kessel Run comes from that the all the smugglers talk about all the time."

"We knew the risks," she said. "We were careful, until you and the brat showed up. My crew were some of the best, we'd been running together for years. We were family."

With resolve in his voice Naruto said, "We gotta do something, ero-sensei. We can't hand her back over to the Hutts."

"We can't let her go either," Jiraiya replied. "If she doesn't try to kill us again first, one of the bounty hunters looking for her will kill her. She's totally screwed either way. There's not much we can do."

He looked straight into Jiraiya's face and said, "We can get her off Tatooine, take her to someplace safe."

"How?" Jiraiya regarded him with a pained expression. "Sure we can sort of fly the Falcon around on Tatooine, but we don't know much about flying in space."

"I've done more flight training in space than you have," Naruto told him. "Besides, Matey can program the hyperdrive for wherever we need to go, and he can fly the ship if we can't." Jiraiya looked down at the gray woman with a heavy sigh, and Naruto saw him close his eyes. He knew the old man was thinking, and he knew what would the old man would eventually say.

"Wait a minute, what are you..."

"Shut up you," Jiraiya pressed his foot down harder on the woman silencing her. "I'm trying to think!"

Naruto added, "Yes, she made a mistake and messed with something really dangerous, but she shouldn't have to die because of it. Her friends are dead because of us, and terrible things happened to her because of us. We have to make this right." Jiraiya sighed and his shoulders drooped.

"Sometimes gaki, I hate it when you make sense." he replied.

"Hold on," the assassin protested. "I tried to kill you, more than once, and now you want to save me. What kind of people are you?"

"We're ninja." Naruto replied.

Then Jiraiya added, "And, right now we're the only ones in the entire universe who are willing to help you stay alive. So, I suggest you come with us, or do you really want to die?"

Naruto and Jiraiya guided their charge through the city streets. They wrapped the woman up in a cloak and had her walking in the cowed posture of a submissive slavegirl. He and the toad sage wore the henge of a pair of Zygerrian slavers, so nobody even looked at them twice. Naruto spotted what could likely have been more of the Hutts men looking for the woman, but they were able to slip right by totally unnoticed.

"Are you two some kind of changelings?" he heard the woman ask.

"Hush," he told her. "We'll talk once we get you off the street." He saw more armed men further down the lane not far from where they had parked their speeders.

"If we get caught this is going to turn ugly really fast." Jiraiya warned him.

"I'm down to four kunai, one exploding tag, and a handful of caltrops," said Naruto. "What have you got, ero-sensei?"

Jiraiya replied, "Six shuriken, three explosive tags, and a couple of smoke bombs." Naruto mulled this over for the moment, then he had a bout of sudden inspiration and a smile spread across his face.

"This way," he grabbed the woman's arm and lead her towards a nearby alleyway. Jiraiya followed behind until they were well out of sight of the street.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto cast, trying to be too loud. Three kage bunshin poofed into existence in front of him. He felt the woman next to him stiffen at the sight.

"There's armed thugs out there on the street," he told them. "Get out there and distract them so we can get away, and don't let them get you until we're well good and gone." The three Narutos all three saluted.

"You got it boss!" they said in unison.

They all three formed the familiar mudra and shouted, "Henge!" With another poof three perfect copies of the gray woman now stood in front of him. Naruto heard the woman issue a strangled gasp this time.

"What the fuck are you!?" she demanded, looking at him with an expression of fear.

The three kage bunshin ignored her and ran out into the street. Naruto followed at a further distance pulling the woman along with him. They rounded the corner in time to see the kage bunshin do their work. Two of them went to the rooftops while one strolled straight down the street, right towards the waiting thugs.

"Oh boys," the kage bunshin called out seductively in the woman's voice. "You looking for me?" Dozens of weapons instantly trained on her.

"Come and get me," she kissed the palm of her hand, slapped it to her ass, and waved it in their faces. The thugs rushed forward, some with lust in their eyes.

"Time to go!" the kage bunshin jumped to the rooftops and started running. A few of the thugs began to open fire, and the rest gave chance. Then, one of the other disguised kage bunshin ran by, blowing kisses at the thugs, and jumped to the rooftops in another direction. Naruto stifled a laugh, and got a brief glimpse of the woman next to him watch at the spectacle with an expression of horror.

"Well, that got their attention." Jiraiya laughed.

Before long they were on their speeders. The woman sat behind Naruto as they left Mos Espa behind and when to their ship in the outskirts. During their ride they had to fall back a few times to avoid roving bands of bounty hunters on speeders, then about an hour later they finally arrived at the Jade Falcon.

"That's your ship?" the woman asked incredulously. "Its a museum relic."

"We found it," said Jiraiya, probably not wanted to reveal much more to her.

"Tell Matey to get ready for launch," Naruto dismounted his speeder. "I'll put the speeders away." Jiraiya lead the woman up the boarding ramp, and Naruto went to work stowing the speeders in the underbody compartment. When he was done he boarded, closed the ramp and went to the cockpit. The gray woman was in one of the seats, her hands in shackles. He didn't say anything, mostly because he wasn't quite ready to trust her either.

"We'd better get going," said Jiraiya. "If I'm reading this screen right we've got incoming." Naruto looked over and sure enough several speeders were on the scope approaching their location fast.

"How did they figure out we were here?" he scratched his head, then Matey bleeped and warbled frantically.

"Matey says somethings broadcasting a low level signal, here in the ship." he translated with the aid of his PUT.

Jiraiya looked at the woman and sighed, "They put a tracker on her! That's why those Twi'leks suddenly showed up, and why there were so many thugs on the street as we were trying to leave."

"They must've injected it into me when I was unconscious." the woman said.

"Wonderful," Naruto saw Jiraiya roll his eyes. "Ok, gaki, this is your show. Get us the hell out of here!" Naruto strapped in, grabbed the control, and fired up the engines.

He pulled back on the throttle and said, "Ok, here we go!" With a lurch Naruto launched the Jade Falcon into the sky at full speed. He put the throttle to full and pointed the ship straight up. Within minutes the blue of the sky dulled and turned dark as they left the atmosphere.

"We need a destination, where are we taking her." said Naruto as he switched the flight controls into zero-G mode.

He heard the woman sigh once, then she said, "There's only one world where I'd have some semblance of being safe, but it will likely cost me."

"Where's that?" Jiraiya asked.

"Florrum." she told him. Naruto looked over at his sensei, slightly surprised.

"The only thing on Florrum is a pirate scumbag named Hondo." Jiraiya told her.

The woman laughed, "That scumbag used to be my boyfriend." The very thought of that made Naruto shutter for some reason.

"Well, I bet you didn't love him for his looks." Jiraiya laughed. The image of the Weequay pirate came to Naruto's mind, and he couldn't for the life of him see how this woman could be attracted to something as ugly as that.

"I liked him for the size of his wallet, and other things." she said. "Lets just say, though he isn't much to look at, he does know how to please a woman where it counts."

"So what do we call you?" Naruto asked her, he pointed to himself and his sensei. "I'm Naruto, and this is Jiraiya."

"Yeah, I'd rather not have to call you "hey you" for the rest of the trip." said Jiraiya.

"Sing, my name is Aurra Sing."

**From the Author**

Holy shit! Naruto and Jiraiya have no idea what they're in for. Aurra Sing, if any of you ever watched The Clone Wars you know what's likely coming. Yeah, and then you add Hondo on the mix. This is gonna get messy. Please look forward to it.


	8. Chapter 8

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 8**

Matey warbled a warning, Jiraiya check the scopes. He was starting to get better at reading them. "We've got company on the way." he said.

"I've got this," Naruto jerked on the controls as something hit the ship from behind making the deck lurch. "Those new shields are holding. Matey, get the hyperdrive going for Florrum." The utility droid warbled in acknowledgement and went to work.

"Seven, eight, nine, no wait...twelve," Jiraiya read the scopes. "Goddamn woman you really pissed them off!"

He saw Sing roll her eyes, "Is that all."

"We're jumping to hyperspace, everybody hold on!" Naruto grabbed the hyperdrive throttle and pushed it forward. Jiraiya felt himself being pushed back into his seat as the stars in the forward viewports turned into streaks, then they were in the light tunnel effect of hyperspace travel.

"According to this it will take twelve hours to reach Florrum." said Naruto, who was currently reading one of the navigational screens.

"Alright then," Jiraiya sighed. "I'm gonna take our guest to the common area and have Matey do a scan on her." He reached out to grab her arm but she jerked away from him.

She hissed, "A scan, what for? You've got all of my weapons, and your kid destroyed my favorite blaster."

"They knew where to find you, how to locate you," he grabbed her arm and pulled her along to the common area. "Which means they put a tracker on you somewhere." She stopped struggling and he was able to lead her to a seat without any further hassles.

"Matey, get over here," he ordered the droid. Matey warbled happily and trundled his way. The droid's single eye turned to face him. Jiraiya still wasn't sure what to make of droid. They were machine, yet they were sentient, but to his shinobi senses he couldn't feel them. They had no chakra, yet they seemed to be alive. He could only imagine what a Hyuga might see if they looked at them using their Byakugan.

"Scan her, you're looking for a tracker," he said. "Probably somewhere under the skin. That's where they usually put them. Be careful, it might be rigged like a slave tracker and could have an explosive in it." Matey gave him an acknowledging warbled and extended a sensor probe which he moved slowly over Sing's body.

"How does he do those things?" Sing gestured towards the cockpit. Jiraiya frowned at their passenger. She was trying to get information out of him that she might use against them. At least that's what his instincts were telling him, but he also sensed something else in her. Something that perhaps even she didn't know was there. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he had a feeling she wasn't quite as bad as she pretended to be.

"Who, Naruto?" he jerked his head in the direction of the cockpit. "I taught him how to do most of "those things", young lady."

"But, those clones of his, they're solid and can think and act on their own." she said looking perplexed.

"Its a ninjutsu technique called kage bunshin," Jiraiya explained. "Its very advanced. Normally a ninja of his age doesn't yet have the ability to pull off a technique that complicated. However, Naruto is...special." Sing raised her eyebrows at that.

"Special in what way?" she asked.

"Lets just say he has an annoying knack for doing the impossible." he told her. He wasn't about to say anything about the Kyuubi no Youko. Not even Shmi Skywalker knew about the Nine-Tails, and Jiraiya was going to keep it that way if he had anything to say about it.

"He is very strong with the Force." she commented.

"What, Naruto?" Jiraiya laughed. "He isn't a Jeddy, or Jedi or whatever they're called. He's simply just a very...gifted...ninja." He wanted to add knuckle headed and unpredictable, but he thought better of it.

After a moment of silence Sing said, "I don't know, every time he uses those powers of his I sense a strange movement in the Force. Exactly how do your ninja powers work?"

"We use Chakra," he explained, giving her only most basic of descriptions. "Its an energy created inside all living things. Ninja learned to mold this energy to perform jutsu. Its generated from the exercising of the mind and body, and when both sources are molded together we can use it to perform jutsu like the ones you saw."

"So, when you turned into Zygerrians that was the same power." Jiraiya nodded.

"But, that wasn't an illusion, you actually turned into Zygerrians." she said.

"Yes and no," Jiraiya told her. "Its very complicated to explain, and without a basic knowledge of ninja arts you'd never understand it." Matey pulled back his sensor arms and warbled something.

"He found your tracker," he said, making a rye face.

"Where?" she demanded, probably not liking the way he was looking at her.

Jiraiya tried not to laugh, "Under the skin of your right ass cheek." Down the hall in the cockpit he heard Naruto burst into laughter.

"That's very funny, ha, ha, ha!" Sing groused, she muttered under her breath about perverted thugs.

"We gotta get it out," he told her. "They can find you easily if we don't. I wouldn't be surprised if they're following us right now."

Sing just laughed, "Here I thought you were smart, everyone knows you can't track ships in hyperspace. Its only when we drop out of hyperspace that they can detect the tracker."

But, she sighed and added, "But, you're right. They can track me until it's removed and destroyed. So, can your droid do surgery?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "Nope, but I've got some emergency battlefield first aid training, so I'll be able to take it out. Its not far under skin, there shouldn't be much blood." He grinned trying not to look like he was enjoying this.

She rolled her eyes at him, "You mean I have to drop my pants, for you?" He just smiled at her, and held up a bottle of antiseptic and one of his kunai.

"Goddammit!" she growled. "You so much as do anything perverted and I will kill you old man." He waited for her to stand, get into a kneeling position, then helped her pull her pants down. For a brief moment he appreciated the view, felt her smoldering eyes on him, then quickly went to work.

In less than a minute later he had the tiny tracking device on a tray for her to see. The cut had been shallow, there was very little blood. All he had to do was spray on an antiseptic and wound sealant spray and she was done. His job done, he handed the tray over to Matey who promptly took it to a workbench, extended a probe arm, and zapped the tiny device until it start smoking and let out a small pop and a spark.

"So, how did a pretty girl such as yourself become a ruthless criminal?" Jiraiya asked her, curious about her life, but was really more interested in passing the time in conversation rather than sitting around in silence.

"If you must know, I was once a Jedi Padawan," she admitted with bitterness in her voice.

He wasn't expecting that. He asked, "You obviously aren't a Jedi now, what went wrong?" He didn't expect the sudden look of hatred and malice on her face when she answered him.

"My bitch of a master sold me off to Sennex pirates because she thought I was a failure!" she cried. "They raised me as their own, but I was capture by Wallanooga the Hutt and handed over to Anzat Assassins who trained me in the art of killing. Have you ever met an Anzat?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "Can't say that I have."

"They've got a way of getting into your head," she told him. "They're telepathic, very much like a Jedi but much more powerful. They do this so they can subdue their prey."

"What do they prey on?" he asked her, wondering if maybe she was making this up to unnerve him. Maybe to see if she could put him off his guard.

"They've got these twin tentacles on their cheeks," she explained. "When they've got their victim thoroughly enthralled, they thrust them up the nose and into the brain cavity. Getting your brains sucked out by an Anzat is a gruesome way to die. I've seen them do it first hand."

Jiraiya shivered with revulsion, "Are any of those Anzats on Tatooine?"

Sing nodded, "Jabba employs several Anzat as his personal assassins. When their tentacles are retracted they look like ordinary humans. You could be passing dozens of them on the streets of Mos Espa and not even know it."

Jiraiya wondered if advanced counter genjutsu techniques could be used to prevent being prey to those aliens. He wasn't in any hurry to find out if he was right. He wondered if there might be a way of detecting who might be an Anzat, perhaps a blood seal of some kind that could tell who was and wasn't human. He'd have to research it.

"You say your Jedi master sold you to pirates," he said, recalling what she'd told him earlier. "I've heard quite a few stories about the Jedi, and that doesn't sound like something they'd do." Sing shot him a look of venom that was almost on Tsunade's level.

She cried, "Are you calling me a liar!?"

He calmly replied, "No, I'm calling those pirates liars. I've seen more than you could ever imagine, young lady. Naruto and I come from a world where innocent children are often manipulated into becoming lethal weapons. I'm quite familiar with the kinds of people who would take someone like you, play on their fears, tell them the right kinds of lies, and use their hate for their own gain." He saw the hardness in her eyes waver, only a little, but it was a start.

"You don't know the Dark Woman," Sing spat. "I was a failure to her, so she sold me!"

"On whose word," he countered. "Those pirates? I wouldn't trust the word of pirates verbatim. Hondo's the most honorable pirate I've ever met, and I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw this ship."

Sing laughed, "He was my boyfriend, and even I didn't trust him." That made Jiraiya laugh.

"Do you realize what you're saying," Sing continued, in a low voice. "It means my entire life until now has been based on a lie." He put his hand on her shoulder.

He said, "You wouldn't be the first, trust me. Just think about it, think about who these people are who've been jerking you around you're whole life. They're all pirate scum and crime lords. Do you really believe they'd tell you the truth, especially if telling you a lie was far more profitable?" She looked up at him when he said that last part, and he could see realization on her face. Then, she put her face in her hands and started to cry. Jiraiya had the feeling this was the first she's ever cried in years.

"I've killed so many Jedi," she admitted. "How could there be a future for someone like me. All I've ever known is killing and death!"

"Nobody is beyond redemption," Jiraiya looked to Naruto who was now standing next to him.

"Hey, who's flying the ship?" he demanded. Naruto stuck his thumb towards the cockpit.

"Autopilot," said Naruto. "Matey set it when we jumped to lightspeed."

Jiraiya moved back to let Naruto sit next to Sing. He knew Naruto had an unusual effect on people. He could turn enemies into allies. To himself he jokingly called it Therapy Fist, but there was more to it. Part of it was his enthusiasm, part of it was his refusal to give up on anyone no matter how far into the darkness they've fallen. He'd just reach right in and pull them out into the light. He was beginning to believe what the toads had told him so long ago. Maybe Naruto was the child of prophecy they said would be his final student.

"I have a friend, he's a little like you," Naruto said to Sing. "His brother murdered his entire clan, and he dedicated himself to getting revenge. All he cared about was power and getting stronger. In the academy I was considered a loser. I was last in the class. A lot of people considered me a failure. But, as I started getting stronger and stronger and reaching his level faster and faster he got angrier and angrier." She looked up at him and wiped the tears from her eyes. Jiraiya just watched, he knew this story well.

"I tried to make him understand that he didn't have to suffer alone," he continued. "This wasn't a contest, we were a team and we could help lift each other up. But, he saw my growing strength as weakness in himself, and then he started to believe that our sensei was deliberately hold him back. People called him a genius his entire life because of his clan, who were all very gifted, so he believed he was better than everyone else. When that belief was challenged he decided to take the easy path to power, and abandoned our village to join with our worst enemy." Sing was just sitting there listening to him as if mesmerized.

"He sided with this guy named Orochimaru," he said. "A traitor to our village who's obsessed with living forever. He found a way, but he has to take over people's bodies to do it. Every so often he had to change bodies because they wear out, and he wants Sasuke as his next one. Sasuke can't see the danger he's in. His hate, obsession for vengeance against his brother, and desire for power at any cost have blinded him. And, now, I can't save him. We came to Tatooine by accident and have no way to find our home. I failed Sasuke." He saw the boy clench his fists, trying to stave off the tears he know the boy wanted to shed for his friend.

"In three years Orochimaru will take his body," said Naruto. "And I'm stuck out here with no way to find our planet. I failed Sasuke, so I'll be damned if I ever fail anyone else ever again." Jiraiya saw his face turn hard with rigid, unwavering determination and a fire hotter than the suns of Tatooine burned in his blue eyes.

"But, still, I'll never give up on Sasuke even if I can't be there," said Naruto. "And I'll never give up on you, no matter how many people you've killed, no matter how many bad things you've done, no matter how far into shadows you fall I'll always be there to pick you up. That's my way of the ninja and I'll never back down." Naruto reached out and held her as she started to cry. It was a deep, sorrowful, cleansing cry. Jiraiya smiled, he couldn't have been more proud of his student than he was now.

"Master, I've investigated Tatooine as you requested."

Dark Sidious observed the hologram of his apprentice. He'd been awaiting word from Darth Maul for days since dispatching him to the distant outer rim desert planet. He'd sensed something on that world, but couldn't quite tell what it was. After his conversation with his own master he thought it prudent to send Maul to investigate.

"What did you find?" he asked.

Maul replied, "Nothing of significance. I felt no disturbance in the Force, not like what you described, master."

Sidious gave a frustrated sigh, "Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected."

"I can widen my search, master." Maul added quickly.

Sidious shook his head, "No, the great plan takes precedence. We'll have to place this matter on hold for now. The time has come to make our move on the Black Sun. You know what you must do."

Darth Maul nodded, "Yes, my master, it shall be done." And with that his hologram vanished.

"I never cried that much in my entire life."

"How do you feel?" Jiraiya asked. He, Sing, and Naruto stood at the foot of the boarding ramp. They were now on Florrum, a world as barren as Tatooine if not quite as hot. In the distance they could see an oncoming speeder of some kind. Jiraiya had taken Sing's advice so they didn't land within Hondo's compound.

"Better than I have in a very very long time," Sing admitted with a smile.

"You want this back?" Naruto held up her lightsaber. Jiraiya saw conflicting emotions play across Sing's face. Then, she smiled, reached out, and closed the boy's fingers around the weapon.

"No," she shook her head. "That represents the past. A past I have to leave behind. My days of Jedi hunting are over." She pressed the weapon toward him, then reached out and hugged the blonde causing him to blush.

"Will you be alright here?" Jiraiya asked her. Sing nodded.

"Hondo owes me, I can trust his sense of honor enough to know he won't turn me over to the Hutts." she told him.

"About that, I've got connections with the Hutts," Jiraiya offered. "I'll talk to them, see if I can find a way to get them to let you off the hook. That way at least you can show your face around Tatooine without needing to watch your back. At least, no more than you already need to watch your back on Tatooine."

Sing laughed, "Thank you, both of you." She leaned down, kissed Naruto on the cheek, and turn and kiss Jiraiya on his. He could now hear the engine of the speeder as it approached. The big vehicle came to a stop and an all too familiar Weequay jumped out.

"Nashtah my dear," Hondo shouted in greeting. "Its been ages. And, Jiraiya and Naruto, its good to see you my friends."

Jiraiya exchanged a look with his student, in unison they said, "Friends?"

"Come now, you aren't going to take what happened between us on Tatooine serious are you?" Hondo laughed, then he turned to Sing. "My dear, I hear you've gotten yourself into quite a mess."

"You owe me a favor," she told him. "I need a place to lay low for a while until things calm down." Hondo put his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"And that I do, my dear." he said. "Very well, you shall be given your old room back at the compound. I haven't touched it since you left, so you're old clothes should still be on the floor where we left them last time." Jiraiya shivered, wondering how the woman would let this guy do anything like that with her.

"Come back with us, have a drink for old time's sake." the pirate gestured to the speeder. Jiraiya shook his head.

"Can't stay," he said. "We came to drop off Sing. I need to get back to see if I can get the Hutts to back off." He looked over at his apprentice with a smile.

"And, we have a couple of giant krayt dragons to hunt down." He smiled at the boy who smiled back just as happily.

Sing gasped, "Krayt dragons! Hold on, just the two of you!?"

Hondo waved dismissively and laughed, "Don't worry about them, my dear. I'd worry more for the krayt dragons, ha!"

"You take care Sing," Naruto waved. "Remember, when you get back to Tatooine come look us up." Jiraiya reached up and tapped the controls to raise the ramp. He and Naruto waved as it started to rise.

"I will, and thank you!" they heard her say just before the ramp closed.

"Come on gaki," said Jiraiya as he headed for cockpit. "Lets get out of here before these pirates get into their damn fool heads to try and hijack us."

Naruto nodded, "Good idea." He took the controls and had them in the air as soon as Hondo's speeder moved off. Jiraiya had Matey program a return course to Tatooine before they left the atmosphere, then as soon they reached orbit Naruto kicked the ship into hyperspace.

**From the Author**

You could call this chapter the Redemption of Aurra Sing, and I just had to add that Therapy Fist reference in there. I've got some plans for her character later on in this story, especially during the Clone Wars. Her role in events will be radically different this time. You'll have to see, but that's a long ways off still. There will be more action coming soon as Naruto and Jiraiya start their hunt for a pair of epically sized Krayt Dragons. Please look forward to it.


	9. Chapter 9

_Spelling and Grammar checked using Google Docs. See chapter one for copyright disclaimer._

Michael "TheZorch" Haney

"**Nindo of the Force"**

**Chapter 9**

Naruto brought the Jade Falcon out of hyperspace and Tatooine quickly flew into view. He heaved a sigh of relief. Taking Sing to Florrum had been their first trip into hyperspace since their original unintended voyage. Yes, the ship had a new hyperdrive, new engines, and new navigational system, but it still made him nervous. Their descent into the atmosphere of Tatooine was uneventful. Nobody was there to greet them with guns blazing, which was a relief. He was half afraid the Hutt's men might have recognized their ship and would start shooting at them the moment they were spotted.

Thankfully, Naruto saw no trouble as he flew into Mos Espa and landed at their usual dock. Their fees were paid up for the months, so the ground crew rushed in to refuel the ship once they were down. Jiraiya had already lowered the boarding ramp by the time he shut everything down and took the control key out of the flight console. Matey was waiting for him by the ramp.

"Come on Matey," he waved to the droid. "We're going home to Shmi-okasan and Anakin." He smiled as the droid gave a happy warble. Jiraiya was already pulling out their speeders.

"We haven't seen them in over a month," Jiraiya said. "They must be pretty worried."

"We did send them a couple of messages." Naruto reminded him. He'd given them to Matey, who delivered them in person. It was safe to send the droid. Most people ignored their comings and goings.

"Yes, but we couldn't tell them where we were or what we were doing." Jiraiya replied. He passed Naruto his speeder and the blonde hopped on and thumbed a power switch. A small set of manipulator arms detached from the back, latched onto Matey, and pulled him up to the back of the speeder.

"You secure there, Matey?" the droid answered him with a happy sounding warble.

Naruto smiled, "Cool, this is the first time I get to try that out. But, it makes us a little back heavy, maybe I should switch to a sidecar kinda things for you." Matey warbled back in a tone that suggested maybe that was best.

"You can actually understand him without your PUT?" Jiraiya asked, Naruto guessed it was because he didn't see him wear it at the moment.

Naruto shrugged, "A little bit."

"Even with Shmi's tutoring I still only half-way understand her and Anakin without mine." said Jiraiya, who was now putting on his.

Naruto warned, "Don't depend on it too much. What if you lose it, or it gets damaged?" Which was why Naruto insisted on being able to clearly communicate with Shmi and Anakin before wearing his PUT. If he lost it he'd at least be able to talk to some of the people on Tatooine. While many didn't speak the same language, most did understand some of each other's tongues, so cross communication without a PUT was often possible.

"You gotta point," Jiraiya sighed. "I'll work with Shmi more on getting better. I have trouble with their word for _I_ and _maybe_, my tongue wasn't meant to twist like that." Naruto laughed.

After securing the ship they sped off through the streets of Mos Espa. It was finally good to be back in the city. Mos Espa felt like home to Naruto now, probably more so than he really wanted to admit but he was getting used to the place. Of course, they'd be leaving eventually to establish Mos Sukui, but they still had a lot of work before they even got that far.

The one thing Naruto missed more than anything else was Ramen. There was no equivalent to it anywhere on Tatooine that he could find. He found something that was sort of close to it he could import from Alderaan, but it still wasn't the same. The last few packs of instant ramen he brought with him were in his cabin on the Falcon. He got into them only sparingly, whenever he couldn't stand being without it. Right now he had about three packs left. Once those were gone he had no idea when he might possibly get more, if ever. He thought about maybe finding someone who could duplicate the recipe. It might turn into a money maker.

"Hey, lets pick up some lunch and surprise Shmi and Anakin." Jiraiya suggested. Naruto liked the idea. He was getting hungry. There were a few local dishes that he did like. He liked one of the more common fast foods, a pasta dish made with jerked dewback meat. He spotted the place that sold the kind he liked the most just up ahead.

"Lets stop at Jengo's." he gestured up the street at the blinking sign. Jiraiya nodded and soon they pulled over to the streetside cafe.

"Hey, look what the gundark dragged in," cheered a tall multiarmed droid behind the streetside counter. "My best customer, haven't seen you around Naruto. How've ya been?"

Naruto smiled, "I've been ok, Jengo."

"That's good to hear," Jengo nodded his squarish head. "Uh, I heard you and the old man had a bit of a fight with somebody over on the west side. Caused quite a ruckus I hear."

"Just somebody trying to kill us." Jiraiya said casually.

"I don't know if I should be the one to say this," Jengo said in a hushed tone. "But I've heard talk that Gardulla is really pissed at you two. I don't know why, but the only reason there aren't bounty hunters crawling all over the place is because of Jabba." Naruto looked up at his sensei questioningly, and the old pervert shrugged.

"I haven't done anything to piss the old Hutt off." Jiraiya said.

"Well, I'd watch your back I were you," Jengo warned him. "Right now you're Jabba's favorite cuz you're the best at gathering intel on the street, but Hutts are fickle creatures. Jabba got mad and fed his personal servant to his pet rancor, now that slimy Bib Fortuna has the job." Naruto had heard that name before, he was a petty criminal who'd been working his way up in Jabba's organization. To become Jabba's personal servant was an important position, but also a dangerous one.

"Fortuna!?" Jiraiya exclaimed. "That loser, Jabba could do better than him. He's a spineless boot licker."

The droid shrugged, "That's what I heard through the grapevine. Now, what can I get you boys? I bet I know what Naruto wants."

"It'll be carry out today," said Naruto. "Four orders of your number five special, large, and a family size order of Corellian onion rings."

"Got it!" Jengo saluted and his other arms went to work on the grill.

Naruto turned around to his sensei and said, "Hope that wasn't over what we did for Sing. I was sure we were too far away for them to recognize our ship." Jiraiya shook his head.

"Don't know, gaki," Jiraiya said. "If it was, Jabba would have had someone at the hangar waiting to escort me to his estate."

Naruto heard a familiar laugh nearby and whipped around. He found himself face to face with a Dug, whom he immediately recognized. "Oh its you." he groused. He knew this Dug well, the local podracing champion Sebulba, and all around pain in the ass. Naruto's biggest beef with the four legged alien was his attitude towards Anakin.

"Word on the streets is you two helped someone Gardulla the Elder was really mad at," Sebulba grinned, bearing his teeth. "She and Jabba are currently having a...disagreement. I hear he rubbed it in her bloated face that it was you who took Nashtah offworld and out of her reach." The Dug laughed again, and slinked past.

"Gardulla's a vindictive bitch," the Dug warned. "If you aren't careful you'll both end up as bantha poodoo. Hehehehe."

Once the Dug was out of sight, Naruto said, "I do not like that guy."

"That must have been Gardulla's spice Sing was stealing," said Jiraiya. "Those thugs on the street must have been hers, not Jabba's. From what I hear she and Jabba have had a long standing rivalry, though there were rumors once they that were a couple."

Naruto wondered how that worked with Hutts, but then remembered something important he heard about them. "I thought there weren't any girl Hutts, that they were...you know...both." he said.

"They're hermaphrodites," Jiraiya explained. "So you're right, they're both male and female. That doesn't stop many from taking on a male or female personality. Jabba identifies as a male, while Gardulla identifies herself as a female."

Naruto shook his head, "That is so weird."

"Order up!" Jengo shouted, holding a large container with a handle on it to Jiraiya. Naruto slapped a few peggats on the counter which the droid quickly scooped up.

"You come again," the droid called as Naruto headed for his speeder. "And this time don't be a stranger." Naruto waved to the droid before speeding off.

"No promises!" he shouted as he hit the accelerator. He and Jiraiya swerved their way through the midday traffic and headed towards the slave quarter. It wasn't long before Naruto pulled up in front of Shmi and Anakin's house. A few young slave boys on the street waved to them, and Naruto waved back.

Naruto knocked on the door, there was no answer. He tried the knob and it opened. Looking back at his sensei, he drew a kunai out of his pouch. Shmi always kept the front door locked. He and Jiraiya had a key. Naruto lead the way, weapon ready. Ahead he could hear the sound of crying and he quickened his pace. They found Shmi at the dinner table crying over a cup of Jawa juice. When she saw them she immediately tried to tidy herself.

"Shmi-okasan, what's wrong, where's Ani?" Naruto quickly asked as he ran to her side.

"What happened, your door wasn't locked." Jiraiya came in and set the food container on the table.

"I'm ok," she reassured them. "Its Watto, he's making Anakin pilot in another of those terrible podraces again. Its in two days at the Boonta Raceway." Naruto hugged her and she kissed his cheek.

"Its so good to see you two," she smiled. "Anakin will be so excited that you're back. I take it you took care of your assassin problem?" Naruto nodded.

"Its over." Jiraiya told her.

"And we kinda made a friend at the same time." Naruto explained.

When Shmi looked at him questioningly he added, "The assassin was one of those thugs we ran into in Anchorhead back when we first met. She was mad because her friends were killed by Gardulla the Hutt, and we didn't know that was going to happen. So, we helped her get away and now she's kind of a friend."

"Well, I'm glad you were able to resolve it without killing." she smiled which made Naruto happy. He didn't like seeing Shmi sad. She was the mother he never had.

"You mentioned Anakin was going to be in another race." said Jiraiya.

"I can't believe that buzzard is making him do that," Naruto growled. "I heard those races were really dangerous." He had a sudden urge to go out to Watto's shop and pull his wings off.

Shmi shook her head. "The Boonta Eve Classic is in three months," she said. "Watto wants Ani in the race, but to qualify he has to participate in this one. He doesn't necessarily have to finished the race, but he has to be in it to get registered."

"How many races has he been in?" Jiraiya asked.

"Five so far," said Shmi counting on her fingers. "He never finished though, someone would cause him to crash, or his pod would malfunction midway through the race. And, always, Watto would bet against him." Naruto frowned at that.

He put his hand on Shmi's and said, "We'll be there with you for the race, you won't be alone this time."

She smiled at him, wiping away a tear. "Thank you, you're so wonderful Naruto, just like Ani."

Boonta Raceway was named for Boonta the Hutt. Over 25,000 years ago the Hutts fought a war against the Tionese warlord Xim the Despot. The Tionese inspired the Moralans, a slave race to the Hutts, to rebel and free themselves. They formed a parliament in opposition to the Hutts and their new government prospered due to Tionese protection. However, the war wasn't faring well for the Tionese, and they were forced to withdraw from the Moralan system. Boonta the Hutt invaded and drove the Moralans to extinction. Today, this event is celebrated as the three day Boonta Eve festival.

Naruto didn't think that was something to be celebrated. The extinction of an entire race that just wanted to be free wasn't something you should be celebrating. In his mind Boonta the Hutt was a war criminal. There was little he could do about it right now. When they establish their village they could either ban the festival, or create their own dedicated to the remembrance of the Moralan people.

Podracing was a very dangerous sport, from what Naruto learned. You sat in a pod that was dragged along behind two engines via cables. It was the chariot races of old, except the horses were replaced by high speed engines that were kept together via a single power coupling. Any failure anywhere and your engines could go flying out of control, your pod could smash into the ground, or you could blow up at the starting line. All of those have happened before. Now young Anakin was going to take part in this very dangerous race and Naruto didn't like it.

They said their goodbyes to Anakin in the pit area, then went to one of the viewing platforms reserved for family members of the racers. The platform rose to the top of a tall spire giving them a panoramic view of the Boonta starting line. One either side towered enormous stone bleachers. They were raised high off the ground to provide a small semblance of spectators, but Naruto had heard even that often wasn't good enough most of the time.

Fodesinbeed was the announcer for the race. The two headed alien spoke briefly about the upcoming Boonta Eve Classic, then began announcing the racers as they came out onto the field. Matey traveled along with Anakin making last minute adjustments to his engines. A pair of eopie were harnessed up to pull the vehicle to its starting position at twelfth place. Sebulba was in the third place starting line. Jabba, a big fan of podracing, was up in his private balcony overlooking the speedway.

"So, how good are some of these racers?" Jiraiya asked Shmi.

"Sebulba almost always wins," she said, and Naruto frowned. "Ody Mandrell can be pretty dangerous in the mid race battles. The rest I don't know, they're probably from the racing circuit on Malastare." Naruto scanned through images of the other racers on a viewing tablet Shmi had been carrying.

The racers began powering up their engines. The roar even up in the viewing platform was deafening. Naruto handed the tablet to Jaytwo, the protocol droid held it up with one hand so they could all see Anakin waving the crowd when he name was announced. Not many people cheered for little Ani, except for his friends who were also slaves. Naruto added his own voice to the meager cheer.

"Kick their butts, Ani!"

"Go get them, Anakin!" Jiraiya cheered, adding his voice.

Naruto knew he couldn't hear them over the roar of the engines, but it was the thought that counted. Shmi smiled at both of them, appreciative of their support. He was worried more for her than he was for Anakin. Something told him the little boy would be alright. Naruto didn't understand why, but he just knew Anakin was going to be alright. He might not finish the race, but he wasn't going to get hurt either.

"You know," he began, giving voice to his thoughts. "On our world we don't have spaceships, speeder bikes, droids, blasters, and podracing. If ero-sensei and I went back home right now nobody would believe any of the things we've seen or done. It all still feels like a dream, like I'm gonna wake up one day and we're going to be back in that cave in Wind Country."

Shmi replied, "Maybe we're all dreaming, maybe we're all sharing the same dream."

"I don't think we're dreaming." said Jiraiya.

"Why's that ero-sensei?" Naruto asked him.

The old toad sage just smiled and said, "My harem isn't here." Naruto rolled his eyes and Shmi just laughed. Shmi had commented on Jiraiya's "perverted" tendencies. She found that part of him to be actually endearing. Naruto guessed it because compared to the unsavory things she was used to seeing made Jiraiya seem tame in comparison.

A gong resounded, Jabba called a beginning to the race, and moments later the podracers lurched forward at high speed. Anakin left a cloud of dust in his wake as he hit the throttle speeding off along with the rest of the racers. Naruto turned his attention the to the tablet Jaytwo was holding, he could see Anakin's speeder dodging and weaving as he went from twelfth place to tenth in less than a few seconds. Further ahead things were already starting to heat up. Ody Mandrell forced one of the racers into a stone wall, they could hear the explosion in the distance. Sebulba had pushed his way into the lead, and was struggling to keep that position against another racer who clearly was very experienced.

"Has he ever lost a race?" Jiraiya asked Shmi.

"Only once," Shmi told him. "To a Twi'lek who was something of a racing prodigy. They found his corpse three days later in a back alley. There was no investigation." Naruto frowned, this world was almost irredeemably corrupt, but he'd seen how the slaves supported one another and that gave him hope that his plan would make a difference. The people of this world wanted change, but there weren't any brave enough to make it happen. He wasn't afraid of the Hutts and the corrupt bounty hunters.

"Someone important must have lost a large bet." Jiraiya said.

"Everything in Mos Espa revolves around betting on these terrible races." Shmi replied.

Naruto cheered, "Ani's in seventh place!" The other two turned their attention to the tablet screen, Sure enough, Anakin has pulled out ahead and was swiftly closing in on the the leaders. Who, at that very moment, were fighting it out for their positions. Slowly but surely Sebulba and Mandrell eliminated the competition.

"Mandrell always lets Sebulba win," said Shmi. "He's rich, so he doesn't need the prize money. He does it for the thrill. Once its just him and Sebulba in the lead he'll hang back in second place." Sure enough, the Er'kit fell into a position just behind Sebulba and made no attempt to pass him. He did fight off anyone who tried to take his position. Anakin had to dodge around the wreckage of at least one foolish racer who tried to challenge him.

"This is getting brutal." said Naruto.

"Wait until the third lap," Shmi replied. "This was just the warm up."

Because of the number of racers that were eliminated, Anakin found himself now in fourth place. He used a thrust and loop trick to get himself into third place, and this put him up against Mandrell. The Er'kit wasn't being too brutal with Anakin's attempts to pass him, but eventually it looked like the racer decided the little boy needed to be shown his place. Shmi looked away, but Naruto continued to watch as Anakin avoided smashing into the wall of Beggar's Canyon, then used the canyon wall to vault over Mandrell and catch up with Sebulba.

"Damn, he's good!" Naruto commented.

"Little Ani is the only human who can compete in these races." said Shmi.

Jiraiya replied, "Force sensitivity, maybe. I've heard it can give you better reflexes."

Shmi shook her head, "I don't know, maybe."

"Come on Ani, come one Ani!" Naruto cheered as the little boy made the Dug fight for first place. Then, Naruto's heart leapt into his throat. Sebulba brought himself around so that his engines came close to Anakin's pod. A burst of flame shot out as Sebulba hit max afterburn. Anakin tried to dodge out of way while also shielding his face with one free arm. His racer went out of control, one of the engines clipped a rock and spun breaking its power coupling link with the other. The second engine almost hit Ody Mandrell as it went tumbling, and exploded taking out the racer behind him. Anakin's pod, now with just one badly damaged engine still attached went flying off the race course.

"Ani!" Shmi cried. Naruto jumped off the platform, he summoned three kage bunshin who threw him in the air towards the closest rock wall. He planted his feet against the stone pumping his chakra into his feet, and began running down the sheer cliff. Just before reaching the ground, he jumped, and hit the ground running heading for his speeder bike. As he hopped on and raced off in the direction Anakin had last been heading he hoped the little boy was alright.

**From the Author**

Yeah, this was very late. I realized I hadn't gotten any stories out the entire month of February, but that didn't mean I hadn't been writing. I was wanting to get these last two chapters done right, and I still haven't written Chapter 10 yet. That one will be a major turning point in the story. So, I promise it won't be that long before I finally have it done. As for the podcast, I'm still working on it. Please look forward to it.


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